Four Superheroes and a Tsarevna
by Devil Woman
Summary: After a defective teleporter reverts Natasha back to her former six year old self, the rest of the team not only has to fix the problematic machine, but also look after their now adorable comrade! Now updated with bonus side stories!
1. Chapter 1

Four Superheroes and a Tsarevna

By Devil Woman

DISCLAIMER: All characters are copyrighted by Disney/Marvel. I own nothing.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've seen a lot of de-aged fics floating around the Avengers section and I wanted to give my own spin on the ever-popular plot device. Read and Review!

It had been a particularly normal day for the Avengers. Well, if you could call it normal. The group was out on a mission in the city when a trump card was laid out before them: a group of super powered underlings showed up and ready to spoil the team's advantage over their foe. As such, the group divided themselves and began to pick apart their opponents. While Tony, the Hulk and Steve fought on the ground, Clint and Natasha where high up on the roof of a nearby building. With the two assassins slowly being outnumbered, Clint quickly dug into his pocket and pulled out a small round object.

"Nat, we gotta bail!"

"Are you crazy?! It's a straight forward drop from this height!" she said, still firing her pistol at the enemy.

"I got a plan. Trust me."

After finishing her clip, she turned to Clint and nodded. The two then jumped off the edge of the roof and where soon falling incredibly fast. Hastily pulling Natasha close to him, Clint had his thumb on the button of the stop watch-like item.

"Nat…close your eyes and take a deep breathe. We're going to jump."

"Jump?" she questioned, then saw the object in Clint's hand. "Is that what I think it is?"

Clint only nodded. He then pressed the button and soon the two of them teleported. A blue light engulfed their bodies and soon Clint and Natasha disappeared from mid-fall. Within a few seconds, Clint landed hard against the payment on the ground with a grunt. He was on his side and had a few scraps on his bare arms, but otherwise was fine. He rolled over, looking up at the sky.

"Damn! I didn't think it was gonna be that much of a pain, huh Nat?" Clint soon realized that the Russian wasn't next to him. Sitting up and getting his baring together, Clint quickly looked around.

"Nat? Where are you?" he called out. He got up and winced a little. Still in some pain from the hard landing, he looked around once more when a rustle caught his attention. A flash of cloth near a dumpster gave Clint direction on where to go.

"Nat? Is that you? Are you OK?"

He peered around the corner of the dumpster and to his surprise he saw a small young girl cowering in the corner. She could have been no more than five or six and had on a black t-shirt that was too large for her tiny frame. Her short red hair was in tousled waves and she had on no shoes.

"Hey, it's gonna be OK. My name is Clint and I'll get you to safety." He told the girl calmly. Clint extended his hand out to her. The little girl looked up and had striking blue-green eyes. Clint swore she looked familiar, but now was not the time to dwell on it. He had to get the girl somewhere safe and fast!

"You're not gonna hurt me mister?" she whimpered.

"No, I won't. I promise." He reassured.

The girl eyed his hand, then Clint's face. Clint gave her a warm, caring smile. The girl grabbed his hand…and then smacked his throat hard. The blow sent Clint falling on his backside and lose his breathe. The red-headed child ran away toward the open street.

"Hey kid, get back here!" Clint yelled to her. A scream then came and he quickly dashed to where the little girl was.

She was looking up at the Hulk, who was no more than a few feet away from where she was standing. Too terrified to move, the small child started to shiver in fear. Clint scooped her up in his arms.

"Let me go! Let me go!" she screeched and began to struggle in Clint's arms. But his grip was strong and Clint held onto the little girl tightly. Suddenly, the Hulk came up to Clint and with one look the girl screamed again. She buried her face into Clint's chest, her grip against his body now tightened.

"Don't let him get me!" she pleaded and started to cry.

"Hulk, go let Tony and Steve know I'm fine. Nat is missing, but I found some kid out here. I'll go bring her someplace safe."

The Hulk eyed the little girl in Clint's arms, whose red curls was bobbing up and down slightly from her erratic breathing. He then looked at Clint and nodded.

"OK. Go find safe place for tiny Tasha."

Clint was about to tell the Hulk that it wasn't Natasha until both he and the Hulk saw a car roll past them. The Hulk grinned with delight, knowing what came next. As the green giant ran toward the fight, Clint sprinted in the opposite direction, holding the small girl in his arms. When he felt they were far away from the battle, Clint looked down at the girl. She was still crying, although not as loud or hard as before.

"Hey kid, the monster's gone now." He told her.

The child slowly looked up at Clint. Her face was wet from her tears and her eyes were mildly puffy and red from her constant crying. Now that he had a better look at her, the resemblance to Natasha was uncanny. Clint produced a tissue from his pocket and wiped her wet face and nose clean.

"Now if I put you down, will you promise not to run away from me…or try to hit me again?"

"I promise." The little girl said. Clint put the child down and she did as she was told. Now hiccupping from crying so hard, she sniffled and rubbed her eyes.

"So kid, do you have a name?" Clint asked. The girl was quiet for a moment and then spoke.

"Natasha…Natasha Romanoff."

* * *

When the rest of the team met up with Clint, they couldn't believe it. Everyone was back at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and in the sick bay with the child Clint had rescued. They were waiting for a doctor and nurse to come and examine the little girl. The poor child was sitting on the exam table, eyes wide with confusion and uneasiness as she was watching the three adult men talk about what happened.

"So let me get this straight: that kid sitting on the table in front of us in the too-big t-shirt is our little cutthroat from Mother Russia?" Tony asked Clint.

"Hard to believe, but yes. That's Nat, red curls and all."

"If so, how did she become a child?" Steve asked, sending a sympathetic smile to the girl. She twisted her shirt nervously, still with the same expression of worry on her face.

"Well…" hesitated Clint. "Tony, promise me you won't freak out."

"What'd you take?" he said in a frustrated tone.

"You know that telelporter you snatched from Deadpool awhile back? I, uh…borrowed it and used it to teleport me and Nat from a fight earlier."

Tony was oddly calm after what Clint had told him. Just as Clint was thinking he was off the hook, Tony grabbed the collar of his shirt and jerked Clint harshly, ready to punch him squarely in the face.

"You asshole! You better have it with you and in one piece because of you don't…" Tony growled.

"I do! I do!" Clint nervously proclaimed.

"Enough!" Steve commanded and separated the two men.

"Clint…I was incorporating some alien tech into that teleporter. I haven't even given it a test run yet!" Tony angrily spat at the archer.

"Well guess what? You got your test run and it turned Nat into a kid!"

"Anything wrong with you, bird boy? Got a craving for birdseed chimichangas?" Tony asked sarcastically. Clint only glared at him with disgust.

"You two can have your quarrel later. Let's just see if this little girl is really Natasha." Steve told both of them. He then turned back to the girl. "Hey there sweetie. How are you doing?"

"Fine." She said, looking down at her lap.

"I know you are scared and confused, but the three of us are going to make sure that you are safe and sound."

"Really?" the child said and looked up at Steve, paying attention to the concern in his voice. "Will you keep me safe from the big green scary monster?"

Steve was told that the Hulk had frightened the little girl badly. They made sure that Bruce was back to normal before heading back to S.H.I.E.L.D. and not present when they took the girl to the sick bay; all the men concluded that they didn't want a repeated incident with the child.

"You bet." He told her. The little girl smiled with glee.

* * *

After a struggle with the doctor (it turned out the child was afraid of hospitals; it took both Clint and Steve to calm her down just to have the doctor take a blood sample), the results were clear: the little girl was indeed Natasha. Upon hearing the report, Nick Fury demanded that Tony get straight to work on getting the kinks out of the teleporter. As for Natasha, Fury assigned the team to care for her and suspended their active duties until further notice.

"UGH! It's just like that crappy 80s movie…except not funny to say the least." Tony muttered as he glanced at the teleporter in his hand.

The team had just gotten back to the tower and where beat. Clint was holding Natasha's hand while Steve was carrying a large brown paper shopping bag filled with clothes. S.H.I.E.L.D. had managed to find a few child-sized outfits for the now six year old Natasha. She was wearing some black capri-style leggings and a better fitting t-shirt with sport sandals on her once bare feet.

"You better call Pepper first thing tomorrow morning, let her know that she's going to have to take a six year old clothes shopping." Clint said. He knew that Tony was still mad at him for taking the teleporter, but Tony had eased up on Clint once finding out the truth about Natasha.

"So how long do you think it'll be before Natasha's back to normal?" Steve asked as he put down the shopping bag on a free chair by the kitchen island.

"Who knows. Judging by how long it took me to find the replacement parts…" Tony paused, thinking. "It could be days, weeks. Maybe months." Both Steve and Clint exchanged worried looks.

"At least you have Bruce to help you out. As they say, two heads are better than one." Clint commented.

"Speaking of Bruce, someone better go get him. He should know what we're dealing with." Steve suggested. Tony nodded and made his way to the lab that he and Bruce shared.

Clint led Natasha over to the kitchen island and they both sat down. Steve was over by the stove, heating up a small pot of milk. Clint looked at the six year old, who was watching Steve intensely, wondering what he was cooking. He was beginning to feel guilty about what had happened to his partner. He always made sure that Natasha was never in harm's way. From their first meeting, the now juvenile Natasha had no memories of Clint. She now just saw him as the guy that saved her.

"How would you like some hot cocoa Natasha? I bet you could some right now after what happened today." Steve said, grabbing a mug from the cabinet next to the stove.

"I never had that before." She said, watching Steve pour the hot cocoa powder and warm milk into the mug and mixing it.

"Then you're in for a treat! And I'll even add some marshmallows too." He said and plopped several mini marshmallows on top of the frothy beverage.

He handed the hot mug to her. Carefully eyeing the steaming cup, Natasha blew on the cocoa to cool it down. She then took a tiny sip. After letting her mouth acquire the taste, she smiled.

"It's good!" she said and took another more satisfying sip.

"Glad you like it." Steve said. He noticed the somber expression on Clint's face. "It looks like your friend Clint could use a cup of cocoa as well." He told Natasha.

"You want some?" she asked Clint, handing him her mug.

"No thanks. I'll make my own later." He gave her a small smile of appreciation.

"Oh…OK." Natasha said with disappointment. Clint didn't like making Natasha feel bad (even as an adult). "Alright Nat. Just one sip."

Natasha's mood brightened and Clint took a sip from the mug. He handed it back to her. Natasha peered into the cup and scowled.

"Hey, you drank it all!" she told Clint. He swallowed and stuck his tongue out at her. She promptly did the same.

"More please." She said to Steve, holding the mug up to him and he happily obliged.

As Natasha was having her second cup of cocoa, Bruce had come into the room to introduce himself to her. From Tony had told him about what happened to Natasha, Bruce was worried how she would react to meeting him. He knew that she was terrified of the Hulk and if she ever found out that he was the big scary monster…

"Hello Natasha." He said to her.

"Hello." She replied. She was unsure what to make of Bruce.

"My name is Bruce. I'm a friend of Clint, Steve and Tony. I was told that you'll be staying with us for a while."

Natasha nodded. She grew shy and looked to Clint and Steve for reassurance.

"Bruce is a good friend. He'll make sure you're safe as well." Clint told the little girl. Clint's trusting of Bruce was more than enough proof to the six year old that Bruce was a person she could depend on.

"OK." She said and turned back to Bruce. "You want some cocoa? Steve makes a good cup." He smiled; glad to see that Natasha found him to be friendly. "Sure, why not." He said as Steve prepared a mug for the scientist.


	2. Chapter 2

It was growing late and Natasha was beginning to nod off from being tired. Clint offered to help get her ready for bed. He escorted her to her bedroom and after changing into an over-sized sleep shirt and brushing her teeth, Clint tucked Natasha into bed. As he was doing so, the little girl grabbed ahold of Clint's hand.

"Stay with me." She asked.

Clint didn't know how to respond. Normally, the adult Natasha would kick him out of her room, as she valued her privacy away from the others. But now that she was six, it was likely she was nervous about being in a strange, unfamiliar place.

"I really shouldn't." he told her.

"But I'm scared that the big monster might come and get me again."

"I wouldn't worry too much. That big ol' brute won't be coming in here, not with me and the other guys here to protect you." Clint said, but noticed Natasha's eyes full of doubt.

Suddenly, an idea came to him. Clint went to Natasha's closet and pulled out a small stuffed animal. He handed it to the child, who inquired about it.

"What kind of bird is this?"

"That is a hawk I gave as a present for a friend of mine. You see, she used to be afraid of monsters too. And when she was feeling sad one day, I gave her this. I told her that whenever she was feeling scared, just hold this little guy close to you and he'll make all the monsters go away." Clint explained.

Natasha looked at the toy. He was a little worn, but otherwise in rather good condition. She smiled and hugged it close to her.

"He's soft…what's his name?"

Clint had to think. What he said about the toy was mostly true. He had given the stuffed bird to the elder Natasha as a gag gift on her birthday one year. She played it off, but it was a secret between the two of them that Natasha loved the plush animal the most out of all the gifts she received. As for its appearance, Clint knew that Natasha did keep it under her pillow from time to time. When he asked her about it, she did admit that it did help her sleep on troubling nights ("particularly on lonely nights when you are away.").

"Well…she never told me his name. Say, why don't you give him a name?"

"Will your friend be mad at me for giving him a name?"

"No. I bet she wouldn't mind." Clint said to the little girl. So Natasha thought hard and told Clint the name she picked out.

"I wanna name him after you Clint!"

"Really?" He was humbled by the girl's choice.

"Yup! You saved me today and made sure I was OK."

"Alright, we can name him after me. But he's going to be called Clint Jr., OK?"

Natasha nodded and settled into bed once more. Clint dimmed the lights and gently closed the door.

Clint had gone to the living room and saw Steve was sitting on the couch watching the news on the TV. "Mind if I join you?" "Sure." Steve replied. Clint sat on the other end of the couch and the two men watched the news for a while. When a commercial break came on, Steve muted the sound and looked at Clint.

"I know what you are going through right now. I could see it on your face earlier this evening."

Clint sighed. "I just…I didn't want to hurt Nat, that's all…I just wanted her to be safe."

"Clint. Don't be too hard on yourself. Natasha may be a young girl now, but at least she's still in one piece." Steve put a hand on Clint's shoulder as a means of support. "Tony and Bruce will get that teleporter working in no time."

"You're right Steve…but until then, who knows how Nat's gonna react to everything, especially now that she's six again. As you know, her childhood wasn't full of sunshine and flowers."

"That may be, but think of it this way: we now have a chance to create some new and better memories for her. And when she does become an adult once more, I hope Natasha will be able to retain them. Especially since they will be memories with those she truly cares for…and who also care for her just as much."

Steve's words made Clint feel at ease. "Thanks buddy." "Any time Clint."

* * *

It was still dark out when Clint was being poked at. Grunting, he looked at his clock on the nightstand.

"Five a.m.….the hell?" he said sleepily.

"Clint…I'm hungry." A whisper of a voice said.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and saw Natasha standing by his bed. Her wild curls where parted all over the place and her nightshirt was crumpled from tossing and turning. She had the stuffed toy hawk with her, tucked under her arm.

"Then go cook." Clint told her and rolled back over in bed.

"I don't know where anything is." Natasha stated.

"Then make a game out of it. I'm still tired." Clint was not a morning person. He was always the last one to wake up and go to bed at a decent time; Tony was just as bad, but only when he was engrossed in whatever project he was working on.

Natasha just stared at him with a somewhat disenchanted look on her face. Finally, she left his room in a huff. _Good, maybe she'll go back to bed._ Clint thought and soon drifted back to sleep himself. It had been no more than hour or so after Natasha had first come into his room when Clint was rudely awaken for a second time. But this time it was Steve, who shook him so violently that Clint had no choice but to wake up.

"Steve, what gives?!"

"Clinton! What in the hell are you still doing in bed? Natasha just ransacked the whole kitchen!"

"What?!" Despite he hated it whenever Steve called him by his full name (it reminded him of his father); Clint got up and quickly headed toward the kitchen.

Steve wasn't kidding when he said that the kitchen had been raided. Natasha was sitting on the counter top with a box of cereal in her lap and Clint Jr. next to her. The little girl had used one of the chairs from the kitchen island as a stepping ladder to get on the counter and reach in all the cupboards. And speaking of the cupboards, nearly all of the dishes had been taken out and stacked in piles throughout the area. A few drinking glasses and mugs where broken. The carton of milk was sitting on the kitchen island, open with a puddle next to it and a lone cereal bowl in the middle of another puddle of milk. The bottle of orange juice was also out; at least Natasha had managed to pour a glass for herself and didn't make a mess.

"Nat…what are you doing?! I though you went back to bed." Clint said, shocked at seeing the messy kitchen.

"You told me to make a game outta making breakfast. So I did." She told him, reaching into the cereal box and eating a handful of Cheerios she pulled out.

Steve glared at Clint. "I heard the sound of breaking glass and I went into the kitchen and found her like this. Natasha explained to me what you had said to her. You've got to remember that young children are impressionable."

"Hey! I was half asleep when she came into my room at five in the morning! I didn't think she'd take my suggestion literally!"

Steve sighed. He turned to the six year old. "You did a good job making breakfast for yourself. But next time, just come to me and I'll help you out, OK Natasha?"

"OK Steve. Uh…are you going to hit me?" Both men were shocked by the little girl's question.

"No! Why would you say something like that?!"

"Well…" Natasha fumbled her words in guilt. "Sometimes at the Room, if we did anything bad…we would be hit really, really hard." Her face grew dark and she averted her eyes.

Clint and Steve had known that when Natasha was a child, she had been brainwashed and trained by the Red Room, a crime facility in Russia. For years the grown-up Natasha worked for them and had a trail of blood attached to her name. Since joining S.H.I.E.L.D., she had done more than her fair share of cleaning up her tarnished reputation, but her past still haunted her. Now that Natasha had been reverted to her six year old self again, it seemed those old memories where still present, and very much fresh in her mind. Steve went over to the child and lifted her chin up. Her eyes showcased such sadness and pain that tears were starting to show.

"We are nothing like the Room…we will never lay a finger on you, regardless of your behavior." He told Natasha. Steve's earnest words made her feel better. Natasha gave Steve a smile full of hope.

"Thatta girl. No more tears now." Steve said, putting down the cereal box and picking her up. As he was carrying Natasha toward the living room to go watch cartoons with her in hand, he glanced at Clint. "You're on clean up duty, soldier. Move it!"

Clint was about to argue, but kept his mouth shut. It was his fault after all for not watching Natasha.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Steve had begun to make a proper breakfast: bacon and scrambled eggs with toast. The aroma of cooking bacon soon filled the air and awoke the rest of the team. Tony and Bruce came into the kitchen, still groggy from their late light work on the teleporter. The two men were grateful for being served such a hearty, warm breakfast by their friends. Later in the morning, after everyone had showered and dressed for the day, Pepper arrived and met the now six year old Natasha. Tony had given her the heads up on just how Natasha came to be a child once more, so as to not cause distress for the former adult. Like with Clint and Steve, the little girl quickly warmed up to Pepper. She proudly showed off Clint Jr.

"He's named after Clint 'cause he saved me from the monster." Natasha proudly stated, waving the stuffed toy at Pepper.

Pepper couldn't help but be charmed by the child's admiration to her hero.

"I'm glad that you have such a nice man helping you, Natasha. Say, would you like to come shopping with me? I bet you would like to pick out some new clothes for yourself." Pepper said.

"Can Clint come too?"

Clint mouthed a "no" to Pepper. Going shopping with the girls was going to be torture. Despite having endured real torture out in the field, Clint really hated being bored while watching a six year old try on a million different outfits.

"Well, I was thinking it could be just us girls, Natasha. I think this would be a great chance for us to become good friends."

Natasha was disappointed that Clint couldn't come, but liked the idea that Pepper and her where going to spend some time together. "But can we stop for hot cocoa while we are out? Steve makes a good hot cocoa, but I don't wanna bother him too much."

Pepper chuckled. "You got it!"

Throughout the afternoon, Pepper and Natasha went to a variety of stores. For the six year old, seeing all the different options for clothes was a bit overwhelming, but in a good, exciting way.

"I can choose whatever I want?" she asked Pepper.

"You bet. Now, what colors do you like?"

"Uhhh…I like this color." Natasha said, pointing to a dark grey long sleeve t-shirt. "No! I like this one." Natasha eyed a cream-colored sweater. "Ooh, this color!" she said, grabbing a bright yellow skirt and handing it to Pepper. After seeing the rainbow of clothing options, Natasha couldn't make up her mind; she liked them all.

"Let's try them all and see which ones you like the best." suggested Pepper, to which the little girl wholeheartedly agreed.

While it was tiring managing a young child, Pepper didn't mind. When Natasha was an adult, she seemed withdrawn and whenever she and Pepper had a girl's day out, Natasha was pretty reserved, but still enjoyed the company. As a child she was wide-eyed and engaged in nearly everything. The two had stopped at a café and ordered lunch after coming out of their last store. As Natasha was enjoying her grilled cheese and tomato soup, she looked up at Pepper who was taking a sip of her coffee.

"I'm having fun, Miss Pepper. I never knew that clothes came in all sorts of shapes and colors."

"Did you have many clothes where you last stayed?"

"Not many. They were all the same shape and color…but now that I'm with Clint and his friends, I can wear many different kinds!" Natasha said before dunking her sandwich into the soup and taking a bite.

"I saw that you picked out some shirts with ballerinas on them. Do you like ballet?"

Natasha nodded. "I wanna be a ballerina when I grow up. I like to dance. Well, whenever the Room would let me."

Pepper knew that Natasha was a skilled dancer. In fact, it was Natasha herself that helped Pepper practice for all those galas and parties Tony often got invites for, though he wasn't the best dancer he claimed he was (he even had some lessons with Natasha to "spruce up his dancing skills" as he so put it). If only the Room was a school instead of its true colors, Natasha would have been a wonderful professional dancer.

"How would you like to see a real ballet someday? I can see if there are any shows coming up and can get tickets for you to see them."

"Really?" Natasha's eyes where wide with excitement. "That would be awesome!"

When they got back to the tower, Natasha burst into the room at such speed that she nearly knocked over Tony. He was getting a cup of coffee when she bumped into him.

"Whoa, slow down there Speedy Gonzales! What are you so happy about?"

"Miss Pepper and I had a blast shopping! I got so many new clothes and shows, and other stuff!"

"Really now? Can't wait to see the bill." Tony added as Pepper walked in with several large shopping bags.

"We'll discuss about payment later." She said as she dropped the bags in Tony's arms. He looked at her with disgust.

"What do you want me to do with these?"

"Put them away, silly." Pepper said in a flirty tone.

"You know I have work to do. I really don't have time to put away kid's clothes…maybe I could use some help." Tony responded with the same manner Pepper had used.

"No…I think you could manage on your own." She said gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

"You horrible woman, you." Tony muttered deeply, enjoying the sexual undertones he was receiving from Pepper. She giggled in reply.

Natasha huffed in annoyance, since the two adults were clearly ignoring her. Seeing her displeasure, Tony and Pepper dropped their act.

"Well then, how about you Nat? You wanna help me put your clothes away?"

"Sure! And you can see all my favorites, Mr. Tony!"

Tony was charmed by the little girl's enthusiasm. As he followed a skip-happy Natasha, he thought about the teleporter. It seemed that it was going to take longer than he and Bruce had predicted to fix it…

* * *

"Months?!" Clint exclaimed.

"That's right. Months." Tony said in all seriousness.

The four men were in the lab discussing the state of the teleporter. Pepper agreed to watch Natasha while they were all busy.

"Why so long?"

"Judging from our calculations and what parts Tony needs." Bruce explained. "By the time we can get this thing working properly, we're going to be stuck with a child for an extended period of time."

"Most of the hardware I need is gonna require a few favors from a galaxy far, far away…sans our alien friends and Thor." Tony said with displeasure. The god of thunder was lucky he was back in Asgard on civic duties; who knows how the now six year old Natasha would have reacted when Thor called upon his lighting and thunder into battle (and shouting and rough housing).

"Fury is not going to like hearing about this." Steve said, shaking his head.

"Screw Fury! I'm only worried about Nat. What if something happens to her while she's stuck in the body of a kid?" Clint's concerns mirrored everyone's.

"We just have to take it one day at a time." Steve eased his team mate. "We all need to pitch in taking care of Natasha. That includes you Tony and Bruce; you can't be spending all your time tinkering away at that teleporter."

"Agreed." Bruce said.

Tony grumbled, but ultimately coincided. While taking care of a child was not a top priority for him, Tony knew in his heart that he had to do the right thing and help watch over Natasha.

"You're right Cap. Can't be buried in that piece of crap all the time." Tony sighed as he glanced over at the teleporter on the worktable. He hated being prolonged on a project. The longer it took to fix something, the shorter Tony's attention span became. He would normally move onto another project, but since it concerned Natasha's well-being, Tony just had to take a grain of salt and trudge through it.


	3. Chapter 3

_And so began what was soon commonplace at the Avengers tower. Each member of the team took turns taking care of young Natasha. Now, trying to keep a six year old from becoming too bored was no cakewalk, but each of the men had their own unique way of entertaining the little girl…_

The first one to step up to the plate was Steve. After all, according to Natasha, he was an expert at making hot cocoa. One day he gathered some of his art supplies and decided to work on his sketches. With almost no free time of his own, Steve had neglected his beloved sketchbook.

"Here you go Natasha, you're very own drawing pad and crayons." Steve said and handed her a booklet of white construction paper and a box of Crayola crayons.

"Thank you Steve…I'm not good at drawing though." Natasha admitted.

"Nonsense! I bet you are plenty good! You just have to find your muse."

"What's a muse?"

"Well, a muse if another name for a person, or a thing, that inspires you." Steve explained. Natasha looked at his sketchbook. "Can I see some of your drawings Steve?"

Normally, Steve was hesitant to show anyone his artwork. He was very private about it, as most of his drawings were very personal and carried much weight with them. But he just couldn't say no to the girl; she might become inspired after seeing Steve's art to create her own.

"Sure, you can look at them."

He opened the book and laid it on the table for the both of them to see. While Natasha was not impressed by the still life and landscapes pieces, she paused at one particular drawing. It was one that Steve was the most sensitive toward. The drawing was a portrait of Peggy, his first love all those years ago. In the piece, Steve had taken great care to capture Peggy has he often saw her: brave, forward but also soft and gentle. While she had long since passed, Steve could remember her face as clear as day.

"Who's Peggy?" Natasha asked after reading the title scrawled in the corner. "She's pretty, like a princess."

"Peggy was a very special person to me." Steve said, growing melancholy. Natasha noticed the sad look on Steve's face. "Is she dead?"

Steve was taken aback by the bluntness of the little girl's question, but she didn't know any better. He nodded. "She may be gone, but Peggy will always be in my heart."

"Is Peggy your muse then Steve?"

"Yes…yes she is, Natasha." Was all Steve could say. He smiled at the thought. It did provide some comfort for the time displaced hero.

Natasha turned the page and saw one of Steve's most recent sketches. It was another portrait, but this time it was of Natasha when she was an adult. Steve had captured the Russian in an elated mood. But the drawing was still incomplete. While Steve had finished the face and hair, the rest of her body was still an outline of the dress she was wearing. Steve was worried at how the now six year old was going to react when seeing herself as an adult. He watched as Natasha studied the piece, waiting to hear what she would say.

"'Natasha'…Hey Steve, she has the same name as me!" the child exclaimed with joy.

"She sure does."

"I hope to be as pretty as both Natasha and Peggy when I grow up." The little girl said. Steve tousled Natasha's red curls slightly. "I know you will." He said which caused her to giggle.

For a while the two worked at their sketchpads, drawing and coloring. While Steve had begun working on a new piece, Natasha was scribbling furiously with her crayons. She often paused to admire her skill, and then go back to doodling. When she felt she was done, Natasha asked Steve to look at her art. She had made several pictures. The first was of her and Clint in a street that was littered with debris.

"That's from the day he saved me." She explained.

The next one was of Clint Jr., her ever faithful stuffed toy hawk. Another drawing was of Pepper and Natasha in Central Park. "She's pushing me on the swings." She said. The last drawing was of all the adults: Clint, Steve, Bruce, Tony and Pepper in what appeared to be a field of flowers. A big smiling sun was in the upper left hand corner and Natasha had drawn some clouds and birds in the scene as well. Steve laughed.

"We all look so silly!"

"Mr. Tony looks grumpy, but I bet he doesn't mind. Miss Pepper is there with him. See, they're holding hands." Natasha was a pretty observant little girl. She knew that Tony and Pepper where dating. As to how she felt about Tony himself, she did like him, but Natasha liked to play tricks on him (much to Tony's chagrin).

"I must say Natasha, you are quite the artist." Steve's compliment made the six year old beam with pride.

"Can I see you're drawing Steve? I showed you mine, now show me yours."

Steve picked up his sketchbook and turned it around for Natasha to see. She gasped. Steve had drawn her! "That's me!" she said exuberantly.

The drawing had Natasha sitting in a chair with Clint Jr. looking out toward the horizon. She was wearing one of the new outfits that Pepper had bought her: a light pink long sleeve t-shirt with a denim vest and matching denim skirt, complete with light pink leggings and sneakers. It was similar to how Natasha was dressed today. Steve was in the process of coloring it when Natasha had asked him to look at her art.

"I just have to finish coloring it. And I'll even frame it for you to hang in your room. Would you like that Natasha?"

"Yes! Oh thank you Steve!" Natasha ran over to him and gave him a big hug.

"Awww, you're welcome sweetheart." He said, chuckling and hugged her back.

"Can we go get the frame now, please? I can't wait any longer." Natasha asked (no, begged) Steve.

"Alright, alright. Let's clean up our mess first and then we'll go."

After they picked up, Steve grabbed his and Natasha's jackets and they made their way to the craft store. While he was paying for the picture frame, Steve kept an eye on her. While she was generally well behaved, like the common six year old, Natasha had a nose for getting into trouble when see fit. After the cashier handed Steve his receipt, he noticed that Natasha had disappeared from his sights. He quickly turned the corner and found the little girl transfixed on a large poster. The store had reprints of famous artworks on canvases of all shapes and sizes. The print that had caught Natasha's attention was of a ballerina dressed in white with matching feathers adorned on her headpiece. The poster itself was full of neutral colors (beiges and off whites with undertones of brown and black) and suggested a peaceful overall air. Anything dealing with ballet and dance in general always made Natasha pause and take notice.

"What are you looking at Natasha?" Steve asked.

"This poster of a ballerina. What play is this from Steve?" she asked him. Steve studied the picture. "She is from _Swan Lake_." He answered.

"I remember someone told me that story a long time ago back at the Room. The swan princess was very beautiful, but also very sad."

Steve knew the story was a rather somber piece, but the actual ballet was stunning to watch. "Say, I do believe there is a bookstore just up the street from us. Do you want to go see if you can find a book about ballet? I bet they have ones with lots of pictures just like this."

"Sure!" the little girl replied.

At the bookstore, Natasha had made herself comfortable in a big chair with a pile of picture books from the children's section. Feeling content to leave her by herself, Steve eyed the history section and started to skim through the World War II shelves. He was keen on learning just how the war he was originally fighting in had ended. After taking a book about fighter pilots and their planes off the shelf, Steve glanced over at Natasha. She was engrossed in her book, staring at the pages with glee. He smiled, seeing just how happy his team mate was.

After making their purchases (Natasha had nearly bought out the entire store's stock on kids dance books), the two returned to the tower where the rest of the team was laughing at something. Steve and Natasha saw that Clint, Tony and Bruce where looking at Natasha's drawings from earlier.

"Well look who decided to waltz in. Welcome back!" Tony said.

"We went to the book store and I got a lot of books about ballerinas, and ballet and many more!" Natasha exclaimed. She noticed her drawings in each of the men's hands.

"My drawings! Give them to me!" she said, trying to grab the papers out of their hands.

"Hold up, cupcake. We just wanna take a good look at them." Tony explained to the little girl.

"You were laughing at my drawings! You think they are stupid!" Natasha pouted.

"No…OK yes, but it's not what you think." Clint tried to explain. But Natasha wouldn't listen. She folded her arms across her chest and huffed angrily at the adults.

Bruce placed his paper on the table and knelt down to speak with the clearly upset six year old at eye level.

"Natasha. We were laughing because your drawings make us happy. They are all good memories that you have had with us. We like it when you are happy spending time with us."

Natasha looked at Bruce. He was right; she was enjoying her time with the four superheroes. She smiled at Bruce, who was glad to have the girl not be distraught anymore.

"And speaking of art…" Tony said, holding up Steve's sketchbook. "I must say that this is your best work yet, Steve." He was commenting on the portrait of Natasha and her toy.

"Aw Jeez." Steve blushed with embarrassment.

"Steve bought a frame for it. He's gonna hang it in my room." Natasha proudly stated.

"Isn't that something? You could be a bonafide professional artist in your spare time from saving the world." Clint said.

"It's only a hobby." Steve said, acting humble and rubbing the back of his neck due to being put on the spot..

"Nonsense! You better finish this and get it framed as quickly as possible! I wanna see the final product." Tony said and shoved the sketchbook at Steve.

Later that evening, Steve had completed the portrait. After signing and dating it on the backside of the paper, he carefully slipped the drawing into the frames and sealed it. Taking a hammer and nail, Steve picked out a spot on one of the bare walls in Natasha's room and hung the picture up. Natasha looked at the new artwork and squealed with delight.

"Thank you Steve! I love it!" she gave him another big hug. "I wanna go get Clint and the rest of the guys and show them."

The little girl darted out of the room, leaving Steve alone with the drawing. He looked at it and sighed. He wondered what the adult Natasha would think about having something like this adorn her wall. And how would she react when she would see this after all this was over? Steve hoped she wouldn't mind. After all, Natasha was the other muse in Steve's life, for she inspired him to keep moving forward and not to be afraid of change.


	4. Chapter 4

Bruce was glad it was his turn to watch Natasha. The constant bickering between him and Tony over the telelporter was getting out of hand. A break was in order. So now that he didn't have to worry about the defective machine, he had a new challenge: how to occupy a six year old.

He and Natasha had spent the least amount of time together. Bruce was often worried as to when the child would figure out that he and the "monster" that scared her so much where one in the same. So this constant uneasiness caused a small rift between them. Oh, he got along with Natasha fine, but not as well as she did with Clint, Steve and Tony.

Still, she was excited when she found out that Bruce was going to spend the day with her. Natasha liked how calm and collected he was. While Clint and Tony (and to some degree Steve) where energetic and loud, Bruce was more along the lines of doing more relaxing activities with her. One of their favorite pastimes was reading from Natasha's big book of fairy tales. Steve had bought it for her one day at the bookstore and the little girl would drag out that tome of stories whenever she saw Bruce.

"You have the best story-telling voice Bruce." Natasha told him awhile back.

"That's very sweet of you to say, Natasha."

"I like how you sometimes do funny voices as well."

Depending on the story he read to her, Bruce would give different voices to the characters. Natasha would giggle and gasp in awe over how the scientist would weave the tale for the youngster. So when it came time to pick out today's story, Natasha chose Beauty and the Beast…again.

"But we've read this so many times! Would you like to hear something different?" Bruce asked. "Nope." She told him, putting her foot down on her decision.

For the last several weeks Natasha had developed an obsession for the French tale about a young maiden and the beastly cursed prince whom she falls in love with. Bruce had shown her the Disney animated version one day and now Natasha was hooked. Since he had seen the film numerous times with her, Bruce couldn't help but sing the songs from the movie while he worked in the lab with Tony. At first, Tony didn't mind (even he would sing along), but now after hearing the entire soundtrack in Bruce's horrible singing voice nearly every single day, he was ready to call a mutiny.

"If I have to hear you sing about living in a small French town one more time, Bruce…I'm gonna blast Black Sabbath so loud, it'll make your ears bleed!" Tony threatened him.

"Hey, if you're looking to blame someone, I suggest Ashman and Menken. Those guys can write some of the worst earworms." Bruce said, now cursing himself for getting that particular song stuck in his head once more.

Tony then followed up on his threat by playing "War Pigs" and "Children of the Grave" back to back over the speakers in the lab as loud as they could go. Needless to say, that did the trick for Bruce not singing the musical anymore (he was never a fan of the heavy metal group to begin with).

Never less, Bruce complied. "Alright, Beauty and the Beast it is."

"Yay!" cheered Natasha.

Making themselves comfortable on the living room couch, Bruce began to read the story. Natasha hung onto every word Bruce was reading. After he finished the story, Bruce closed the book.

"So, what do you want to do next?" he asked Natasha. She shrugged.

"I dunno…" she said. "Bruce, the story…is it true about the ending?"

"You mean the moral of the story." He corrected her.

"The moral of the story." Natasha reiterated. "Can you really love a beast?"

Bruce didn't know how to answer her. He often viewed himself as the Beast when he read the story to the girl. Was it possible to find someone to love him, regardless of his duel nature?

"Yes." Bruce told the six year old. "You can love a beast. You just have to get to know the person and not judge him based on his outward appearance."

"I see." She said, taking in Bruce's words.

"I think that's enough heavy-handed lessons for today. How about we go play some Candy Land?"

"Cool!" Natasha always enjoyed beating Bruce at board games, especially ones that where colorful and bright.

As Bruce went to go grab the game, he eyed the book in his hand once more. _But who could ever learn to love a beast? _ That tagline from the movie version rang clear as any bell. Bruce shook any doubt from his mind and picked up the box containing Candy Land.

* * *

The next day Bruce decided to take Natasha to the science museum. At first, Natasha wasn't even remotely interested in going, fearing it would be boring. But after Bruce explained to her that the museum offered all kinds of exhibits for her to interact with, the little girl's mood brightened. Due to Bruce's inability to control the Hulk, he often went out with at least one other person as a means of support. And since none of his team mates were interested in going to a science museum (Tony had to work on the teleporter and Clint and Steve where waging an on-going Monopoly battle), Maria Hill stepped in.

As an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria worked close with the Avengers, so she knew all about the team's current predicament involving Natasha becoming a child. When she came to the tower to pick up Bruce and Natasha, Bruce was shocked by her appearance. While he normally saw her in her work uniform, Maria wearing casual civilian clothes was something new for Bruce. Maria seemed more relaxed in khakis and a white button-down shirt with a jean jacket and sneakers. She waved to the youngster, who greeted the agent with a big smile. Natasha was adorable dressed in a t-shirt printed with neon blue polka-dots and a bright yellow skirt with white leggings and black slip on shoes. Maria couldn't help but gush over just how cute the former adult assassin was right now with her chubby curls, rosy cheeks and vibrant outfit.

"Hi Natasha. Are you excited to go to the museum today with me and Bruce?"

"I sure am, Miss Maria!" Natasha said.

"It'll be nice to get out of the office and go someplace that doesn't involve something blowing up." She told Bruce, who gave her a tiny smile.

Bruce took Natasha's hand and the three of them made their way to Maria's car. Once everyone was buckled in, Maria turned on the radio and the Beach Boys soon came out of the speakers. Natasha recognized the group immediately.

"I know this! Bruce plays them all the time."

"Never figured you to be a Beach Boys fan." Maria told the scientist.

"Well, I was never one to listen to a lot of music, given how off the grid I've been up until recently. But I do have a few favorites and _Pet Sounds_ is a great album." Bruce said.

"Huh…_Pet Sounds_ is my favorite album by them." While they had never really gotten to know one another outside of work, both Bruce and Maria saw this day trip with the juvenile Natasha was going to be a great way to get acquainted with one another.

As they walked into the museum, Bruce and Maria saw that several school field trips were present. The prospect of large crowds was something Bruce was not comfortable with. Stress played a big role in Bruce becoming the Other Guy and he avoided them whenever possible. Maria placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder as a means of comfort.

"Don't' worry. I'm here to make sure you don't…you know."

"Thank you." Bruce told her. He appreciated her concern towards him.

So far the school groups where rather well behaved as Bruce, Maria and Natasha toured the museum. But right around lunchtime, things went south. With tired cries and short tempers, the kids started to act up. They were running around all over the place, shouting and being just plain disrespectful. Several of the older children kept bumping into Bruce and Maria several times, annoying them in the process. Bruce's stress level was starting to climb and Maria took notice.

"Let's go check out the African animals room, Natasha." Maria said to the six year old. It was the furthest away from the school groups and it would help Bruce's stress go down.

"Come on Bruce! I wanna see the zebras!" Natasha joyfully cried and started to lead Bruce toward the exhibit.

While doing so, a large older boy ran past them and knocked over Natasha. "Watch it!" he spat at the little girl and took off. Seeing the boy act so rudely toward Natasha sent Bruce's stress level up. Maria noticed a green tint was starting to appear on Bruce's skin.

"Bruce, your arm." Maria calmly told him. Bruce looked down and his eyes widened; this wasn't good.

"I—"he started to say but Maria interrupted him. "Go. I'll take care of Natasha."

Bruce could only nod. He needed to find a quiet place and calm down before the Other Guy could emerge. Searching for such a place was going to be tough, especially in a museum full of rowdy children.

The building had a second floor that housed temporary exhibits. Bruce climbed the stairs and saw a display for the current show. He cracked a smile when he read the title: Journey Through the Rain Forest. "It's good to be home." He reminisced as he entered the room; it reminded him of his days laying low in South America. Sure enough, the exhibit was empty and free of those bratty school kids! A display within the room was set up to simulate the jungle and Bruce ducked inside. Despite it was low-lit, there was a bench provided for patrons to sit and take in the sounds of the forest via hidden speakers. Once on the padded bench, Bruce took off his glasses and prepared to meditate. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes…

* * *

Meanwhile downstairs, Maria was busy attending to Natasha.

"Are you alright?" she asked the little girl as she helped Natasha up.

"I'm fine." Natasha replied, brushing the dirt off her skirt and fixing it. She looked around for Bruce. "Where is he?"

Maria had to come up with a story on the fly and fast. "Oh! He, uh…had to go to the bathroom. He'll be back shortly. Why don't we go see the animals without him?"

"No, I wanna wait for Bruce." Natasha said.

"But he knows where we are, sweetie. We can always see the exhibit again." Maria wasn't sure how long it was going to take Bruce to center himself.

"NO!" Natasha was starting to act just as ill-mannered as those school kids.

"You want to go upstairs and wait for Bruce? I think that's where the bathrooms are located."

"Sure, then we can all go see the animals together."

Maria took the six year old's hand and they began to climb the stairs to the second floor. _You better get the Other Guy under control Bruce or we are going to be dealing with one cranky kid!_ Maria thought to herself.

She wondered where Bruce had disappeared to as they came onto the landing. The two were walking past the Rain Forest exhibit when something in the display caught Natasha's eye. She let go of Maria's hand and sprinted toward the entrance.

"Natasha! Get back here at once!" Maria called to her.

As soon as Natasha entered the room, she caught wind of the jungle display that Bruce had entered in. With an impish grin on her face, she entered the display and saw Bruce meditating.

"There you are Bruce!" Natasha called out. The child's voice broke the scientist's concentration and he turned toward her. Bruce was surprised that she had found him.

"Wha—what are you doing here?!"

"Miss Maria said you went to the bathroom. But you're here." Natasha cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"Well…" Bruce had to somehow play along with Maria's fabricated story. As he fumbled to come up with an explanation, the little girl noticed the green hue on his skin.

"Bruce. You've got green paint on your arm." She said and proceeded to wipe it away. But the "paint" was not coming off.

Natasha looked at Bruce and noticed that his eyes were different. His eyes were not the soft, caring eyes she was used to. Bruce's eyes now were just like…

A tiny gasp escaped from her mouth. "Natasha…" Bruce tried to comfort the girl, but all he got was a tiny whimper. Maria entered the display and was greeted by a frightened Natasha wrapping herself around the agent's legs. Maria saw Bruce on the bench. He put his head in his hands in obvious defeat.

"Natasha…" Maria said, kneeling down toward the girl. Natasha looked up at her with tears in her eyes. "Sweetie, it's ok."

"No it's not! Bruce is the monster that tried to get me!"

"Now, now. You shouldn't call Bruce such names. You know yourself he's not a monster."

"But he lied to me, Miss Maria!" Natasha cried. "He didn't tell me he was the monster."

Maria pulled out a tissue from her purse and wiped away the tears from Natasha's wet face. "Natasha," Maria began to say. "Remember Beauty and the Beast? Well, Bruce is just like the Beast. He can sometimes turn into a scary person, but what was the moral of the story?"

Natasha remembered. "You have to get to know the person and not judge him on his looks."

Maria nodded. Natasha went over to the down-trodden Bruce on the bench. She nudged his arm and he looked over at her. The youngster stood still for a moment and then proceeded to hug the scientist. Shocked by the six year old's affection towards him in his current state, Bruce was about to push Natasha away when she told him this:

"I want to love the monster as much as I love Bruce."

With the Other Guy still some-what present, Bruce was at first hesitant to return Natasha's hug. But when he saw just how much the child was willing to accept his other self, Bruce knew what he had to do. He returned the hug and soon the green color on his skin vanished all together. Natasha saw that Bruce's skin and eyes were normal once more.

"Bruce, the monster doesn't scare me anymore." She told him. He smiled at Natasha kissed the top of her head as a loving father would his daughter. "And he knows it too." Bruce told her.

When the three of them returned to the tower later that day, Bruce found a note taped onto the fridge. Apparently, everyone had made plans for go out for the evening (Tony and Pepper had a dinner date and Clint and Steve where going to the movies and grab some dinner afterwards); that meant Bruce, Maria and Natasha had the tower to themselves.

After cooking up a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with salad and bread sticks, the trio settled into the living room to watch a movie together. Natasha had picked out _Sleeping Beauty_ and not _Beauty and the Beast_, which shocked Bruce. After all, it was her favorite movie and fairy tale that she knew by heart. But according to her, Natasha decided that she "didn't like _Beauty and the Beast_ anymore".

Bruce knew the real reason why the little girl didn't need to watch the film or read the story anymore: she had already found the happy ending that she (and Bruce) was looking for. Natasha had gotten over her fear of the "beast" that was the Other Guy and Bruce had finally found someone who cherished him for what he really was: a kind, compassionate man who Natasha could always depend on, no matter what age she was.


	5. Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been re-playing BioShock Infinite as of late and one of my favorite anachronistically covers the game uses is an a cappella version of The Beach Boys' classic. Without giving away spoilers for the game, the song perfectly ties into Booker and Elizabeth's relationship in the game. I felt it also works on how I depict Tony's relationship with the six year old Natasha. So, for maximum feels, be sure to have BioShock Infinite's version of the song play in the background while you read this.

* * *

Of all the days it was his turn to watch Natasha, why did the six year old have to have the stomach flu? Tony was glad to step away from his work on the teleporter; despite he felt he was so close to getting the kinks out. Over the weeks he had grown to enjoy his now juvenile team mate, despite the little girl's tendency to play pranks and sass back at the billionaire. Other than that, Tony always got on Natasha's good side whenever he brought out the big container of Lego building blocks. She loved being able to create all kinds of things with Tony. Clint would throw a few wise cracks at him whenever the archer saw the two on the floor in a pile of the plastic bricks, but Tony didn't care (at least it kept Natasha from acting like a brat and he got to indulge on his childhood hobby).

But while it was easy to care for a healthy child, it was going to be an uphill battle with a sick one. Natasha had somehow caught a stomach bug during the week and throughout much of the weekend, she was either confined to her bedroom or the couch watching TV. When she was an adult, Natasha toughed it out and rarely complained. But as a six year old…between bouts of crying and throwing up throughout the day and night, Tony was at his wit's end and ready to throw in the towel.

"I can't do it! I just can't!" he complained to Steve as he was emptying Natasha's puke bucket for what seemed like the third or fourth time today. Steve was standing outside of the bathroom as Tony was flushing the toilet full of vomit. When he came out, Tony and Steve traded buckets.

"Look, I was the last person to take care of Natasha when she was sick. You'll manage."

"But it was a cold. A simple, stupid cold. I'm saddled with that kid from _The Exorcist_!"

"Tony…what she needs right now is a sympathetic ear, not a negative one. I'll go make some homemade chicken soup to ease Natasha's discomfort. Just make sure she's getting enough liquid and try to get something in her stomach until the soup's ready." Steve said and left to go clean the dirty bucket he received from Tony and starting cooking.

Tony sighed. Since he had been tending to Natasha's illness, both he and the little girl where over-tired and irritable. He entered Natasha's bedroom and saw her in bed, looking miserable. Her red curls were messy and tangled; her skin pale and dull. Still dressed in her nightgown from two days ago, Natasha had the covers pulled up to her with Clint Jr. the toy hawk snuggling at her side.

"Hey sweet pea, how you feeling?" Tony asked.

"Sick." She mumbled. "Clint Jr. is sick too."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Say, I know what'll make you feel better. How about I go get you some ginger ale and saltines for your tummy?"

"OK." Natasha said. Tony placed the bucket down near her and quickly returned with the soda and crackers. From what he could remember as a kid, Tony was almost always given warm ginger ale and saltines for his upset stomach. Hell, it even worked for him as an adult after a night of drinking!

Tony poured the soda into a glass and handed it to Natasha. She stared at it.

"No sicky straw?"

"What's a sicky straw?"

"A sicky straw…you know, for when you're sick."

Tony had to ponder over the term. "Oh! You mean a bendy straw! Sorry, the store's all sold out."

Natasha gave Tony a quizzical look. Tony often used many different figures of speech that confused her.

"It means we don't have any." He explained to her.

"Do we have any straws?"

Tony shook his head no. Natasha huffed in disappointment. She took a sip of the ginger ale and placed it on the nightstand.

"It's yucky tasting." She said, pointing to the glass.

"Hey, what tastes like crap is usually good for you, kid." Tony mumbled as he opened the dresser draw searching for some clean pajamas for Natasha. She scowled at him as she munched on a cracker.

"I want something else to drink. I want hot cocoa!"

"No, Natasha. I don't think your stomach can handle anything hot right now."

"What about later?"

"Maybe." Tony told her. He held up a two-piece pajama set with multi-colored pastel stripes to the girl. "Alrighty then, let's get you into some clean PJs. You've been in that same nightgown for the past two days."

"I don't want those PJs. I want the ones with the ballerinas on them."

_Patients, Tony…patients._ For someone who's supposed to be sick, Natasha was sure bossy. After picking the right pajamas, Tony changed her and was about to tuck her back into bed when Natasha's face grew pale.

"Uh, oh." She said. Tony knew what was going to happen next. Quickly picking up the child, Tony darted to the ensuite bathroom located in Natasha's room. With just a few seconds to spare, he threw the toilet seat lid up and shoved the little girl's face into the bowl. After vomiting for a few minutes, Natasha lifted her head up and looked at Tony. Tears started streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry!" she blubbered in between the tears.

"It's OK." Tony comforted her. He ripped off some toilet paper from the roll next to toilet and wiped away the dribble from the corners of her mouth.

After rinsing her mouth out with water, Natasha was escorted back to the bedroom by Tony. She crawled into bed and turned down the covers and made sure Clint Jr. was beside her.

"I really wanted to finish our Lego castle today, Mr. Tony." Natasha told him.

"We will, honey. We will." Tony looked at Natasha. She looked positively wretched. "Do you wanna take a nap? You look pretty beat."

"I'll try." She muttered. Natasha rolled over facing away from Tony and got comfortable.

"Sweet dreams." He said and exited the room.

Tony flopped onto the couch in the living room, exhausted. Clint was busy playing a video game when he caught a whiff of Tony.

"Damn! You smell like sour trash!"

"You would be too if you had to be cleaning up vomit from a six year old." Tony said, smelling his clothes to make sure Clint was right. He grimaced. "I swear, it lingers."

"Poor kid. From what I understand, Nat was up all night sick as a dog."

"And yours truly was with her all the way. She's taking a nap now as we speak; just hope she doesn't wake up and fill that bucket up again." He paused, looking off in the distance. "Natasha really wanted to finish our Lego castle today." Tony told Clint.

The tone of Tony's voice when he mentioned about the Lego castle was glum and made Clint pause his game.

"Look, Tony…maybe you should do something extra special for Nat, especially since she is sick."

"What can I do? Every time I try, that kid always seems to have a smart-alecky answer. And don't get me started on those pranks of hers."

"Nat does really like you. She only plays pranks on you because you act so serious around her almost all the time, Tony. And how do I know this? Nat told me a few days ago before she got sick that she likes it when 'Mr. Tony' always let's her build stuff and is willing to show her how. Also, it appears that Mr. Tony has been letting a certain someone in his garage when no one is looking."

"You got me there, bird boy." Tony had been very vocal about not letting the youngster in the lab and his garage in the tower. The last thing the team needed was to have Natasha be hurt seriously. However, Tony had been sneaking the little girl into his garage to work on various grade-school shop projects. In fact, the last thing he and Natasha made together was a star lamp. Tony had taken a basic lamp and attached a motor to rotate it around. He then helped Natasha create pin-holes in a lampshade to be placed on the device. By turning it on, Natasha could have the stars all over her room at night.

Clint was right: Despite she was a trouble maker, Tony did truly care about Natasha. She was eager to learn and create and Tony did take pride in watching her accomplish her goals. He had to do something special. And he knew just what to do.

* * *

About an hour later, Tony decided to check up on Natasha. He arrived at her bedroom and noticed that the ensuite bathroom light was on. He then heard a flush and Natasha walked out.

"Hi, Mr. Tony." She said, slipping back into bed.

"Can't sleep?"

"Yea. I'm afraid I'll throw up again."

Tony sat on the bed. "I know we had plans today, but I think I know of a way I can cheer you up."

"How?" Natasha was intrigued.

"Well, first we need to create a night sky in your room."

"OK, but be sure to get the room super dark."

Tony drew the shades down and the curtains closed. He plugged in Natasha's star lamp and clicked it on. The lamp began to spin around slowly, casting its light through the pin-hole lampshade and creating "stars" in the room.

"Pretty." Natasha commented. "Now what do we do?"

"I get into bed with you. It'll be like that time I took you out to the countryside to see the stars."

Tony sat up in bed as Natasha cuddled next to him with her stuffed toy in tow. "And now for the best part: I'll sing you to sleep." Tony told her.

Natasha wasn't confident in Tony's singing ability. From what the six year old knew about his taste in music, Tony preferred heavy metal and classic rock. She always preferred the music that Bruce played from time to time; the melodies where simpler and Natasha could sing along with the words.

"I dunno Mr. Tony. I don't really like your taste in music."

"You'll be surprised which song I'm gonna sing to you, Nat. Will you at least give me a chance?" Tony asked the sickly girl.

Natasha thought about it. She nodded yes as she settled against Tony once more. Tony cleared his throat and started to sing quietly to her.

_I may not always love you_

_But as long as there are stars above you_

_You never need to doubt it_

_I'll make you so sure about it_

Natasha was generally surprised by Tony's choice of song; it was something more along the lines of Bruce's musical preference. But as Tony sang the song to her in a soothing, gentle voice, Natasha nuzzled closure to the billionaire, enjoying the song's lullaby quality.

_If you should ever leave me_

_Though life would still go on, believe me_

After finishing the last stanza, Tony looked down at Natasha. The young girl had a sleepy expression on her face and sucking her thumb.

"That was a pretty song. I liked it." She said in a drowsy voice. "Can you sing it again?"

"Sure." Tony said.

Once he finished his encore, Tony glanced at the now deeply asleep Natasha curled up against him. He lovingly stroked her hair, smiling. Steve had been quietly listening Tony sing the sick girl to sleep; as Tony had left the bedroom door cracked just a hair. He peaked through the slit and saw how fatherly Tony looked. Steve was charmed by the scene. He then took his leave, not wanting to disturb the two.

After Steve had left, Tony silently left Natasha's room. She was sleeping so soundly that not even an earthquake (or a Chitauri attack) could wake her up. He strolled into the kitchen and saw the big cooking pot that Steve had prepared the soup in.

"Hey Suzy Homemaker, is the chicken soup ready?"

"Help yourself." Steve said as he was busy cleaning up.

Tony served himself and took his bowl over to the kitchen island. As he was eating the soup, Tony couldn't help but notice Steve's ever-present beaming smile on his face.

"What's up with you? Why are you so freakishly happy?"

"I think you know why." Was all Steve said.

Tony had to think. It suddenly came to him and he glared angrily at Steve.

"If you tell anyone about what I did, I'll make sure you go back to being a Capsicle for the next ninety years!"

"Your secret's safe with me. Scout's Honor." Steve promised and gave Tony the Boy Scout salute. "So why did you pick that song to sing to Natasha?"

"Bruce has been playing the Beach Boys a lot as of late and Natasha's been really enjoying them, so I figured it was worth a shot."

"But is that the real reason why you picked the song? Think about it. I'm going to the training room for a quick workout before bed. Have a good night, in case I miss you before I turn in." Steve said to Tony before leaving the kitchen.

Tony thought about what Steve had said. Normally he wasn't the one to do look too deeply into songs (after all, it was a Black Sabbath song that inspired him to pick his superhero code name). But after reciting the lyrics one more time, Tony understood why he chose the song. Regardless if she was a child or an adult, Natasha showed Tony that without her, his life would be empty of the most important thing that he used to lack: a close-knit group of people that would care about and love you no matter what. And whenever Natasha felt down, Tony was there to make sure she was valued in the same light…which is all any person could ever ask for.


	6. Chapter 6

"So Nat, what's on the agenda for today?"

"Hmmm…" the little girl paused to think. A light bulb went off in her head and she turned to Clint. The playful smile on her face could only mean one thing…

"Let's have a tea party!" "Great." Clint said, trying not to show his discontent.

Whenever it was his turn to care of Natasha, she was always suggesting the most feminine activities for them to do. It was clear as to why the youngster did this: Natasha was the fondest of Clint and by choosing such activities; it was her being the most comfortable and open with him for Clint never judged her. At least Clint could handle playing tea with Natasha; the other times where more awful.

Clint remembered when Natasha wanted to give each other makeovers. With the play make-up kit in hand from Pepper, the six year old slathered gummy lipstick, junk blush and cakey eye shadow on Clint's face. The snickering from Tony as he saw the pastel colors on the archer's skin was more than enough reason for Clint to put an end to any more future make-up tutorials from Natasha.

Then came the nail polish. Again, thanks to Pepper, Natasha had a plethora of play nail polish for her to choose from. Clint didn't mind painting her nails (it was oddly relaxing). But when it came time for the girl to paint Clint's nails, Natasha always picked the most obnoxious colors with glitter…and glitter was a bitch to remove! Clint recalled one night both he and Bruce had to split a bottle of nail polish remover just to get rid of the gunk off their fingernails.

"I can't believe I got roped into this." Bruce complained as he was rubbing the soaked cotton ball on his thumbnail. Natasha had used a bright green polish with silver glitter mixed in.

"Just be lucky Nat's only done this once to you! I swear my nails are gonna be stained from all the different colors that kid has used on them." Clint was busy getting rid of neon pink nail polish with rainbow glitter.

"UGH! I think the fumes are getting to me…I better step out for some fresh air." Bruce said looking sickly. He tossed the cotton ball into the trash and went out on the patio.

"Weak!' Clint called out and continued to remove the polish from his hand.

Natasha had been busy setting up the table for the tea party. While she was debating on what kind of headpiece to wear with her feather boa (a floppy hat or a tiara), Clint eyed the toys he helped the little girl choose to be the guests. Clint Jr. the stuffed hawk was always present, followed by the Velveteen Rabbit that Steve had given to Natasha. Next was a run-of-the-mill doll from the toy store and the most oddball piece sitting at the table: an Iron Man action figure.

How the action figure came to the tower was a mystery (through Clint was sure it was Tony that had purchased the toy for "marketing purposes"). Natasha had gotten her hands on it and decided it needed a "better" outfit. She had dressed the toy in a white Barbie doll hat and found a doll-sized pink flowered apron large enough to fit around it. Clint had shown the billionaire the action figure as a means of revenge for his quips when Clint was getting what Tony called the "Juvenile Special" make-up treatment.

"Look at me! I'm Ms. Nesbitt!" Clint said in a high-pitched voice and made the action figure dance.

Tony just stared nonchalantly at Clint and swiped the toy clear out of his hand. "Shut up." He said before leaving the room. He later returned the action figure to Natasha, who scowled at Clint for making fun of her new toy.

Natasha appeared before Clint with the tiara on top of her head. Clint liked when she wore the tiara; he felt it made the six year old look like a true Russian royal. She smiled at Clint as she took her seat across from him.

"Will Miss Natasha be serving Earl Grey or Chamomile tea for today's party?" Clint asked in his best aristocratic voice.

"Why, Earl Grey of course, Mr. Clint." Natasha replied in a similar tone. "After all, it is his favorite tea."

Natasha served the "tea" from her plastic tea set and passed the serving tray of "biscuits" to all of her guests. Taking pretend sips from his cup, Clint complimented on her hosting.

"Thank you, Mr. Clint."

"You are most welcome, Miss Natasha."

The little girl raised her teacup and Clint clinked his cup with hers. After placing her cup down on its saucer plate, Natasha asked Clint a question.

"Clint…will I stay here forever with you?" He was perplexed by Natasha's query.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Ummm…I've been living here for what seems like forever with you, and Tony, and Steve and Bruce. I like living here at the tower and I don't want to leave. When I was at the Room, they moved us to many different places. I've never been in one place for such a long time."

Clint understood the girl's concern. He knew it all too well himself. When he was younger, Clint lived with a traveling circus and it was always hard to pack up and move to the next town or city. You could never have gotten to know people well; if you did, it only made it harder to leave them behind.

"Nat, this is your home, now and forever. No one is going to force you to leave. And if anyone does, well…they'll have to go through four of toughest care takers on Earth!"

Natasha went over to Clint and gave him a hug. No words were exchanged between the two; they didn't need to.

* * *

Later that day as Clint and Natasha where busy making paper craft unicorns (he was helping her glue together one that was dressed like a pirate), Pepper came in to visit.

"Hello Clint, hi Natasha." She greeted.

"Hi Miss Pepper. Me and Clint are making unicorns." She held up one that she had colored. "I made one for Steve!"

Pepper smiled at the clearly Americana unicorn colored in red, white and blue crayon.

"I bet Steve is going to love it."

"That's an understatement." Clint said.

"I agree. Anyway, the reason why I'm here is I have a surprise for Natasha."

"Really? What is it, what is it?" Natasha was as excited as, well…a child on Christmas morning.

Pepper pulled out a pair of tickets from her purse and showed them to Natasha and Clint. "I promised you that I would get you tickets to a ballet show and I've kept my word."

The youngster's eyes where wide as saucers when she recognized the name of the performance on the tickets. "_Swan Lake_!" she squealed with delight.

"Well, I hope the two of you have fun." Clint found ballet to be dull and slow; he had gone to a few performances over the years and each time he went, it only solidified his dislike for the art.

"Hold up! I won't be able to take Natasha. I'll be in Boston with Tony on business for Stark Enterprises."

"I bet one of the other guys could take Nat." Clint hoped. When he asked Steve and Bruce about taking Natasha to see the show, both men hesitated. Clint just gave them a dirty look.

"You really don't wanna go, do yea?" "Yes!" both Steve and Bruce said.

"It's not that don't want to—"

"I'm not really comfortable with this—"

"OK, fine! I'll take Nat." Clint said as he was leaving. "But the both of you owe me big time."

After Clint had left the room, Steve and Bruce looked at one another. They knew that if either one of them where to accompany the six year old, Natasha would have complained that it wasn't Clint who would be going with her. After all, Clint was her favorite guardian out of all the superheroes…and the one she truly loved the most.

* * *

The night of the ballet performance came and Clint was grimacing at himself in the mirror. The performance hall where the show was taking place had a dress code and it meant that Clint had to wear a tuxedo. He hated wearing anything formal! Steve was helping Clint with his bow tie since he was struggling to tie it.

"I hate wearing this monkey suit." He said with disdain.

"Relax, will you? It'll be over before you know it." Steve said as he was adjusting the bow tie. He took a step back and admired Clint's overall appearance.

"I must say that you do look rather handsome, Clint. Natasha is going to fall head over heels for you."

"Thanks, but if that does happen tonight, it'll be just a tad bit awkward." Clint replied.

Steve frowned. "Just take my compliment in innocence, will you?"

Bruce was in charge of dressing the young girl. When he presented Natasha, Clint was impressed. Natasha was dressed in a medium grey holiday dress complete with tulle fabric in her skirt. She had on a black cardigan with a faux pearl button in the center. Her red curls where held back by a simple headband with a black flower sew on it. Her Mary Jane shoes glistened a shiny black as she walked out.

"Nat…you look beautiful." Clint told the little girl. Natasha blushed in embarrassment and hid behind Bruce. He chuckled and gently pulled the girl forward.

"What do you say?"

"Thank you." Natasha said quietly, still embarrassed.

"Natasha, you were telling me something about Clint in the other room. I think you should let him know." Bruce said to the still beet-red child.

"I don't want to." She said.

"Are you sure? I think Clint would appreciate how you feel about him."

Natasha hesitated. She then motioned Bruce to lean in forward. Whispering something in his ear, Bruce looked at Natasha, who nodded.

"She says that she was hoping that Clint would look like a prince from her fairy tale book. And now seeing him, she was right."

Now it was Clint's turn to be embarrassed. He smiled nervously as Steve nudged his arm playfully in acknowledgement to their earlier conversation. Desperate to change the subject, Clint looked at the wall clock.

"It's been fun gentlemen, but we mustn't be late for the ballet." Clint said, trying to regain his composure (and clearly failing at it). He extended his arm to the six year old, who gladly took it.

After the two left, Steve turned to Bruce. The two men exchanged laughs, for it was hilarious seeing the archer quiver in his shoes over the comment Natasha had made. But then the laughter died and a moment of reflection came over Steve and Bruce, for it was wonderful seeing their former adult team mate finally getting a chance to act like a real princess. It was a dream that most normal six year olds had. And in Natasha's case, it was a dream that was finally coming true, for it couldn't have happened to a person who more than rightly deserved it so.

At the performance, Clint was trying to look interested. He fidgeted slightly, but it was no use: Clint was bored out of his skull. He glanced over at the little girl. Natasha was perfectly still, her eyes glued to the dancers on stage as they performed the ballet. Clint saw how truly happy Natasha was…and that's all that mattered to him.

After having dinner at a high-end restaurant that Tony had generously made reservations and paid for in advance before he left for Boston ("Wouldn't want you to let that tux go to waste, buddy."), Clint and Natasha where taking a taxi back to the tower when he notice that she had fallen asleep in Clint's lap. Clint looked down at the child, who was sucking her thumb and cuddling against him. Smiling, he gently picked up Natasha when the taxi stopped in front of their destination. Upon entering the tower, Clint went directly to her room.

"Wake up Nat. We're home." He quietly told the sleepy girl.

Natasha's eyes fluttered open and she yawned. "Hi Clint." She told him in a dreamy voice.

"Hi." He replied.

"I had fun with you tonight. The ballet was amazing."

"It sure was, kid."

"I think I wanna go to bed now, I'm sleepy."

Clint helped Natasha change into her pajamas; he made sure that the pajamas he picked out had something to do with the ballet. He tucked Natasha into bed, but she called him over one last time. Clint went to the bedside and Natasha wrapped her little arms around his upper body in a great big bear hug.

"I love you Clint." She said and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Clint was startled and blinked. While he would often receive hugs from the six year old, this was the first time she had kissed him. Quickly regaining his poise, Clint looked at Natasha, who smiled at him and shifted herself more comfortably in the bed.

"Good night." Natasha told him, making sure Clint Jr. was right next to her.

"Good night Nat. Sweet dreams." He said. Clint turned off the light and closed the door.

* * *

He entered the living room and made a b-line to the bar. Undoing his bow tie, Clint made himself a drink and sat on one of the bar stools, quietly sipping from his glass. Steve and Bruce had been watching a movie when they noticed the dead-pan look on Clint's face.

"So, how'd your evening go with Natasha?" Bruce asked.

"Good." Clint said, staring ahead and not looking at the two.

"Well, then how was the ballet? I bet Natasha really enjoyed the performance." Steve added.

"It was fine; not really my cup of tea." Clint muttered.

Steve shut off the TV and he and Bruce sat at the bar with Clint. The two knew something unexpected happened to Clint and where determined to figure out what it was.

"Clint…did something happen between you and Natasha? Is she OK?"

Clint only continued to stare ahead and not say anything. Steve and Bruce began to grow concern over the oddly silent archer. Sensing his team mates worries, Clint sighed and came clean.

"I was putting Nat to bed and when she said 'I love you' and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Look, I know that it's normal for a six year old to show affection like that to their favorite person, but…I dunno…it felt different." He couldn't find the right words to explain how he was feeling.

"Clint…do you love Natasha?" Steve asked.

"What?! Yes, I love Natasha! I mean, we've been partners for years and—"

"Clint." interrupted Steve. "I think I know why you feel the way you do right now. I think you are in love with Natasha. Well, the grown-up Natasha that is. And when she was an adult, she might have figured this out at some point. Natasha chose to not tell you about how she really feels about this new revelation. But now that she is a child, it is a lot easier for Natasha to express her feelings. The only problem is that her feelings of love are merely from a child's point of view. In other words, the six year old Natasha loves you, Clint, because you were the only one out of all of us who has been there since the beginning. You are the prince from her fairy tales who saved her from the terrible beast and will love her unconditionally and protect her no matter what."

Steve's words couldn't be any truer. Clint hung his head low.

"And now I'm afraid that once Nat becomes an adult once more…I'll never hear her tell me those words, if she chooses to tell me that is." Clint took one last swig of his drink and slapped the glass on the table. He got up and announced he was turning in. He left the living room, leaning his two team mates speechless.

Steve eyed the empty glass and picked it up. "Bruce, you feel like a shot of whiskey?"

"I normally don't drink, but something tells me that I better have one."

Steve got behind the bar and got out two more glasses. He poured the whiskey into them and handed Bruce a glass. Before taking a sip, Bruce looked at Steve with all seriousness.

"Steve, do you think Clint will get his wish of having Natasha say how she really feels about him once this all blows over?"

"I don't know." He said and raised his glass. "But here's hoping he does."

Bruce was more than happy to cheer to that.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning it was Steve who was up before everyone else. He went to Clint's room and saw that the door was shut. Leaning in, Steve could hear some music being played softly and nothing else. He was about to knock, but forced himself not to. After last night, Clint was feeling depressed and just wanted to be left alone. Steve respected his friend's wishes and went about his own business.

Later on that day, Steve saw Clint make his way to the kitchen and grab a can of soda. The two exchanged looks, then Clint left once again. What else could have been said that already hasn't? Clint appeared once again right after Natasha was in bed for the night. Steve was busy reading the newspaper when Clint tapped his shoulder.

"Hey."

"Hey." Steve replied.

Clint took a seat next to him, who put down the paper. For a few minutes the two sat in silence. It was Clint who broke the ice.

"Steve…I'm sorry for the way I acted the other night."

"You don't have to apologize. It should be me who should be saying sorry. I didn't mean to be so forward."

"But you're right. I just…really wanted it to end up like I hope it would. I didn't want Nat to tell me she loves me as a six year old; I wanted the adult Nat to say those words and truly mean it."

"You'll get your chance. Just wait, it'll come before you know it; even if it's not the way you originally intended it. You'll be grateful when it will happen."

Clint let an appreciative smile be his reply to Steve. He was glad to have such a good friend like Steve to bring him out of his stupor.

'You're right Steve. If Nat decides to tell me, it will be worth the wait. Thank you."

Steve nodded. "You missed a really great dinner. We had Shepherd's Pie that Bruce and Natasha made. Care for a bowl?"

"You bet! I'm starving!"

* * *

_With Clint's mood brightened, the next weeks at the tower where just as lively as they had been. While it seemed to most that the team's care of a small child would grow tiresome, the four superheroes didn't mind. The defective telelporter soon became just a thought amongst the men; they were too busy being involved in Natasha's now common daily activities. But soon it became clear that all good things must come to an end… _

One day after Steve and Clint had taken Natasha out kite flying (the six year old had just seen _Mary Poppins_ and was eager to "go fly a kite" like the children in the movie), Tony rushed up to the three of them, extremely elated…no, freakishly elated. Poor Bruce was trailing behind, trying to calm Tony down.

"It's done! By God, it's done!" Tony cried in joy, shoving the teleporter in Steve and Clint's face.

"What the-?! EWW! You reek!" Clint said, shoving Tony away from him, especially after seeing sweat stains on the billionaire's t-shirt.

"Tony…I think you should go to bed now." Bruce tried to lure Tony away from his confused team mates.

"In a sec Bruce. I finally fixed this piece of—"before Tony could curse, he saw the six year old cross her arms across her chest, eyeballing him. "Er, I finally fixed the teleporter."

"At the cost of your sanity! Tony's been up for the past twenty-four hours working on it nonstop." Bruce explained.

"But it was worth it! OK, let's give this baby a test drive. Ready Robin Hood?" Tony grinned like the Mad Hatter as he grabbed Clint's wrist.

"No way! You need to hit the hay!" Clint told Tony and jerked his arm away.

"You're right Clint. I do feel a bit tired right now…Bruce, Steve. Where is my bed? I've seem to have misplaced it."

Bruce and Steve gave one another worried looks.

"OK, Tony, I think it's time you made a date with Mr. Sandman." Steve said, gently escorting Tony to his room.

"I hope he brings me a sweet dream…I like dreams."

As Steve and Bruce took the overly exhausted Tony to bed, Clint looked over at Natasha. She was confused about the whole conversation. "What did Mr. Tony mean by the teleporter is fixed?"

The men made sure not to let the little girl know about how it was a malfunctioning telelporter that caused her to be here in the first place. But they had no idea what to say or do with her now that it was fixed.

'Well, Mr. Tony was working on a special project for a long time and he's finally done." Clint told Natasha. "He wants me to use it to see if it works."

"It's nice that you are going to help him out, Clint. But I think Mr. Tony's gonna have to wait. He needs to sleep. Just like you guys always tell me, you need a good night's sleep to start the day off right." Natasha said.

Clint thought it was charming that the roles of guardian and child have been reversed.

"Let's just hope Mr. Tony listens and does get a good night's sleep." Clint said as he tousled the child's hair.

Clint, Bruce and Steve where sitting at the kitchen island discussing how they were going to get Natasha to use the teleporter and not freak out. Tony ended up going to bed without much of a fight and was snoring peacefully as the two men returned to the kitchen earlier.

"According to what Tony and I devised, you and Natasha are going to have to recreate the same incident that caused her to become a child." Bruce said to Clint.

"Absolutely not! I will not put her in any type of danger!" Clint exclaimed. He had let both Bruce and Steve know that when he and Natasha first teleported, they were in mid-fall from the fight the group was in all those months ago.

"I don't think pushing a small girl and a grown man off a building's roof top is going to go over well with said child." Steve agreed with Clint's opinion.

"Hmmm…" Bruce thought. "Perhaps we don't need to recreate the fall…we have the two original subjects, it's just the calculations may cause some fluxes…"

Once Bruce started talking in scientific terms, it was like a whole other language for Steve and Clint. Steve cleared his throat, letting Bruce know to ease up on the science. Bruce chuckled nervously, but quickly regained his composure.

"Look, Clint and I could perform a test run right now. I know Tony wouldn't like it if he wasn't included, but he's not going to wake up anytime soon." Bruce suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll watch Natasha while the both of you try out the teleporter." Steve said and got up from his chair. "Good luck."

In the lab, Bruce was adjusting the teleporter's controls as Clint looked worried.

"You sure this thing is fixed? What if something happens to me like what happened to Natasha?"

"Don't think like that, Clint." Bruce scolded. "I'd rather not think like that. I've spent too many years being negative and it got me nowhere. If you must think of something, think about how we are going to get Natasha back to her normal, adult self."

"You're right…but we're gonna miss the kid version of Nat."

Bruce paused. Clint was right. He was going to miss the sweet little girl.

"If Natasha's still a kid, I'll be out of a job." Bruce tried to crack a joke, but it didn't make either man laugh.

Bruce sighed and handed the teleporter to Clint. They switched on their earpieces and tested them out. Depending on where the teleporter was going to send Clint, at least he and Bruce could communicate with each other.

"Ready?" Bruce asked.

"Ready." Clint replied.

Clint took a deep breath and hit the button. The same blue light from before cloaked his body and he disappeared from the lab. Bruce waited for a response, hoping that the teleporter was working properly. Suddenly, a crackle came over Bruce's earpiece.

"Bruce, its Clint! I'm OK!"

"Great! Where did the teleporter send you?"

"Oh, no place exciting, just on the roof of a nearby building. If I had said something like outer space or Atlantis, would I have gotten a cookie?" Clint said.

"I would have given you a cookie bouquet to mark the occasion. Now, try teleporting back to lab. I want to see if it works both ways."

"On it." And the earpiece went dead.

In the few seconds from when they had ended their conversation, Clint reappeared in a blue flash.

"So, you feel any different?" Bruce asked when Clint materialized.

"The same. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"This is good! We could even try tomorrow with you and Natasha!" Bruce said with excitement.

When the two reported to Steve about their test run with the teleporter was a success, he was at first thrilled. But like Bruce and Clint, Steve soon grew somber at the thought of having to say good-bye to the juvenile Natasha.

"I'll be glad to have the adult Natasha back, but it's going to be hard not having her come and wake me up in the morning to make breakfast for her." Steve reminisced.

"And I'll miss story time with her." Bruce added.

"Me too. But what I'll miss the most is how much the kid version of Nat took joy in nearly everything we did with her." Clint said.

The three men glanced over at Natasha. She was busy in the living room playing with some of her toys. Whatever scenario the little girl was portraying with the toys must have made her happy, as she giggled and had a big ear-to-ear grin on her face. It was going to be hard to say farewell to the six year old.

Much later in the day, Tony crawled out of bed and shuffled into the kitchen, groggy and stretching his arms as he was beginning to wake up. He went over the counter and prepared a cup of coffee.

"I gotta stop pulling all-nighters…getting' too old for this kinda crap." Tony mumbled as he mixed in the milk and sugar in his coffee cup. Tony then noticed that his three team mates sitting at the kitchen island staring at him.

"Uh…what did I do?" Tony asked in suspicion.

"Nothing, but we need to talk." Steve said.

"Give me a few minutes for the caffeine to kick in and then we can."

So after Tony had his second cup (and was more alert), he took his place at the island and listened to what had happened while he was asleep. While Tony was grateful that the teleporter was working, he did share the same worries and sorrow over Natasha.

"You know…we could do one last hoorah for her." Tony suggested.

"That sounds like a plan! It'll be a great way for all of us to say good-bye!" Clint said. "But…it's not really a good-bye, more like a 'see you later'."

"'See you later'…I like the sound of that." Bruce said, smiling.

Everyone agreed; see you later was better than good-bye. It made the men feel at ease, since they were not truly losing Natasha…just the sweet, innocent little girl that they had grown to love like their own daughter.

* * *

A few days later, it was early in the morning when Natasha had gotten up. She would normally pester one of the superheroes to get up with her and help her make breakfast. But this morning, the six year old couldn't find anyone. Growing concern, she looked at the toy hawk.

"Clint Jr., we gotta find someone, anyone. Are you with me?" the girl asked her faithful friend. She made the stuffed animal nod in agreement. With new vigor, Natasha walked into the living room. Sometimes she would find either Clint or Tony asleep on the couch with the TV on. But when she entered the room, Natasha found all four men up and sitting on the piece of furniture.

"Good morning Natasha!" the four men cried out. She looked at them in confusion.

"What's going on? Am I in trouble?"

"No sweetie, you're not in trouble. In fact, the four of us have a surprise for you." Steve said.

"We all decided to do something extra special for you. After all, it has been six months since you came to live with us." Clint told Natasha. The youngster's mood brightened.

"We are going to spend the day in the city and you get to be in charge of where we get to go."

"I'm in charge?! Really? Oh, there so much I wanna do!" Natasha gushed with delight.

"Well, we'll be there to help you out. Also, Pepper and Maria are going along too, so we better get dressed and get ready; you are going to have a very busy day today." Tony told her.

Once Pepper and Maria arrived at the tower, everyone then got underway with today's plans. Tony decided to harass Bruce about how it was secretly a double date since Maria and Bruce had been seeing each other more and more often. Both Bruce and Maria glared at Tony, who only shrugged.

"You two would make a really cute couple, just saying." The billionaire commented. "Plus it's nice to see the both of you not be so wrapped up in work." The scientist and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent where just friends; though they did appreciate Tony's concern for their well-being. Regardless what was said, Natasha decided that Steve and Clint where going to her "dates" for the day because she "didn't want them to feel left out."

As the group toured the city and all of its eateries, shops and landmarks of Natasha's choosing, the Avengers really did feel like a family to the six year old. Natasha saw Steve as a father-figure while Tony and Bruce where her uncles. Maria and Pepper where her aunts, which made both women blush from the awkwardness of the analogy. And Clint…well, he was like an older brother, but not quite. Natasha couldn't explain it, but one thing was clear: Clint was a very special person to her…and he would always be in her life.

At the end of the day, the group returned to the tower. Although tired, everyone had a blast! As the group entered the room with bags and coats, Clint carried in a sleeping Natasha. She had a very productive day and had fallen asleep on the carried home. After Pepper and Maria said their good-byes, Clint brought the sleeping girl into her room and placed her on the bed. As Clint watched Natasha sleep, he couldn't help but feel a ping of sadness in his heart. Tomorrow was the day the six year old would be back to normal.


	8. Chapter 8

Today was it. Natasha was going to be her normal, grown-up self once more. Tony and Bruce went into the lab to prep the teleporter along with Steve. Steve wanted the little girl's last moments to be with Clint. As Clint dressed Natasha in the very same black capris and t-shirt she worse when she first became a child, Natasha took Clint's hand and they made their way to the lab.

When they entered, Natasha saw Tony with the machine. "Are you going to do the test Mr. Tony wants?" she asked Clint.

"Yes…and you're going to help me with it."

"I am?" Natasha looked confused. She had known that the teleporter wasn't a toy, but now with the opportunity to help use it was both exciting and off-putting to the girl.

"Nat…Tony wants to see if it can also teleport you with me."

"Uhhh…" Natasha started to grow nervous.

"Sweetie, it's going to be fine." Bruce consoled Natasha

"We'll make sure nothing happens to you." Steve added.

Natasha eyed the device in Tony's hand. She hid behind Clint and whimpered a little. Clint bent down and saw the frightened look on the child's face.

"Nat, don't worry. I'll be with you the entire time. Just like Bruce and Steve said, we all will make sure you are safe." Clint said, lifting the little girl's chine and giving her a comforting smile.

"OK." She said. "But I wanna give everyone a hug before we start."

No one objected. It felt like the ending scene in _The Wizard of Oz_ where Dorothy said good-bye to her friends. Natasha hugged each of the men as she went around the room. It was bittersweet: Steve, Tony and Bruce had grown close to the little girl and their lives weren't going to be the same since the six year old came into existence.

Tony handed the teleporter to Clint. He motioned to Natasha to come to his side. The little girl complied and wrapped her arms around his legs. Clint decided against this and got on his knees. He wrapped his arms around the girl in a loving embrace.

"Ready?" Clint asked her. "Almost." She told him.

Natasha then whispered something in Clint's ear. Whatever Natasha had said to Clint the other men didn't hear. However, Clint's team mates saw the look on his face: whatever was said between the two had brought Clint close to tears. Quickly closing his eyes (a single tear did escape), Clint gripped Natasha closer to him and he hit the button. The archer and the little girl where shrouded in blue light and disappeared.

"I hope Natasha's OK." said Tony, waiting for Clint to page back. Both Steve and Bruce agreed and all three were on pins and needles waiting to hear what had become of Clint and Natasha.

* * *

A splash of blue light appeared and Clint re-appeared. He was still holding onto something, as his eyes where still closed. He was afraid to open them and see what had become of Natasha. Suddenly, an all too familiar voice was heard.

"Clint, what are you doing?"

His eyes opened immediately and Clint looked up. Staring down at him was Natasha; now back to being an adult.

"Nat, it's you! It's really you!" Clint exclaimed. She gave him a puzzled look.

"Clint, of course it's me. What's with the over-zealous yelling?"

"Well, you're never gonna believe what has happened to you!" he started to say, but Natasha stopped him.

"You can tell me all about it after we get back to the tower. Say, where exactly are we?" she asked Clint.

Clint looked around. He had teleported them on some rooftop. "You might want to stand up and stop gripping at my legs." Natasha told him.

"Oh, sorry." Clint let go of her legs stood up and noticed that they were on the roof of the tower. He told Natasha this and the both of them went inside.

When Clint and Natasha returned to the lab, she received the same over joyed cries from everyone else. When her team mates bombarded her with stories of what had happened the last six months, Natasha didn't believe a single word.

"You guys are a bunch of liars." She told them. But when she went into her room, Natasha noticed all the children's stuff scattered about. The floor and bed was littered with clothing, toys and other juvenile paraphernalia. She turned to the men and glared icily at them.

"What the hell is all this? Some kind of sick joke?" Natasha was clearly annoyed.

"No, no! We know not to play pranks on you!" Tony said, even though there was some irony in that statement.

"We'll clean it up right away." Bruce promised.

And true to their word, the men did remove all of the children's items from Natasha's room…well, almost all of them. Natasha did keep a few things, such as the stuffed toy hawk and the well-worn copy of fairy tales with the dog-eared pages. She flipped through the book and noticed that a bookmark was placed in one of the chapters. Beauty and the Beast…she shrugged it off and closed the book before putting it away.

* * *

_It was clear that Natasha had no clear memories of when she had been reverted back to being six. But once in a while, it seemed that those memories would make themselves available to her in subtle ways…_

The drawing that Steve did of her when she was a child still hung on Natasha's wall. He was about to remove it when she slapped his hand away. The look on the Russian's stern face took Steve aback.

"Really? You want me to leave this up?"

"Steve, this drawing…whenever I look at it…it makes me happy. I can't explain it, but since I know it's your artwork, it would be a shame if I had to remove it."

"You always did like my drawings, Natasha."

She agreed. "Plus, it does add some color to these drab walls." Steve saw a small smile appear on Natasha's face when she gazed at the drawing once more.

Then came the day the Hulk broke out into song. One day, while the team was out on a mission, the green brute started singing to their enemies as he was crushing them.

"Be Hulk's guest/Be Hulk's guest! Let fists do the rest!" he sang as he punched the thugs with his giant hands.

While Tony just shook his head in disbelief as both Clint and Steve gawked at the ridiculous scenario that was playing out before them, Natasha wondered why all of a sudden the Hulk would be singing musicals. After the mission was completed, Natasha went up to the de-hulked Bruce and asked him about it.

"Since when does the Other Guy know Disney songs?"

"Beats me." Bruce shrugged.

"I know that the other guys found it incredible annoying, but and this is just between the two of us…I found it charming."

"You do?!" Bruce was surprised by her answer.

"I can't help it. When I heard him sing that awfully catchy song, I couldn't help but want to join in! Then again, Disney does have the ability to make even the grumpiest individual smile. Beauty and the Beast was always one of my favorite stories growing up too."

One day, Tony noticed that Natasha had the star lamp they made together on the kitchen island. She was staring at quizzically, wonder what exactly it was.

"Tony, is this another one of your crazy engineer projects?"

"No, just a simple lamp I made awhile back when I was bored outta my skull."

"What does it do? I've been trying to figure it out all day."

"Go plug it in and turn it on." He said. Natasha looked at Tony in disbelief.

"Knowing you had a hand in building this thing it might be something immature."

"Alright princess, let me show you what it does." "Please don't call me that." Natasha said as she followed Tony to her room.

Tony darkened the bedroom and turned on the star lamp. Thousands of "stars" illuminated the walls and slowly spun around via the pin-holes in the shade.

"Huh, and I thought it would it would be something inappropriate…unless it's in Morse code." Natasha eyed the billionaire. "Just enjoy the show, kid."

The two stood for a moment watching the stars. Natasha spoke to break the silence between them.

"This is nice…it reminds me of a time I was sick as a child and someone sang to me…but who sang to me or what the song was is fuzzy…"

During their routine sparring match down in the training room, Clint was being dominated by Natasha again. Normally, it was he who led the match, but Natasha always got the upper hand. She flipped Clint down hard on the mat, causing him to forfeit. Smiling, Natasha helped Clint up.

"Good match." She said, smiling over her victory.

"Yeah, for you." Clint grumbled; he was always a sore loser when it came sparing against the spy.

As Clint was catching his breath, Natasha told him to meet up with her after they had changed and showered. When Clint came out, he saw her standing outside of the training room.

"You needed to speak with me?"

"Yeah…I know how you really feel about me, Clint."

With all that had happened during the last six months, Clint wasn't sure how to react.

"You do? So…what's your answer?" he decided to play if off coolly.

Natasha handed Clint a note she had pulled out of her pocket. He opened it and saw a web address to a video.

"What's this?"

"A video to a song I remember hearing a lot when I was a child. For the longest time I couldn't remember the name, but it came to me one day. Listen to it and you'll have my answer." She told Clint and took her leave.

He hated when she was so cryptic. Later that night, Clint typed the web address on his laptop and hit enter.

"Hope it's not to some stupid Russian lullaby or something equally as dumb." He muttered as he was waiting for the page to load.

Soon the video loaded and the auto-play function took effect. The song was "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys. But the version Natasha chose was an a cappella. At first, Clint groaned. Why would she pick a song from an old surf rock group? But he remembered Natasha's instructions. So Clint listened to the song twice, still not understanding how this was her answer for him. It was growing late and Clint was not in the mood to sit by the computer. He made an MP3 of the song and transferred it to his music player. Settling into bed for the night, Clint brought up the song.

After listening to the track several more times, Clint understood the significance of the song. He harkened back to his conversation with Steve. _Just wait, it'll come before you know it; even if it's not the way you originally intended it. You'll be grateful when it will happen._ Steve was right. While it wasn't the direct answer Clint was looking for, the song provided the perfect satisfying answer that he wanted. Clint smiled. Natasha did care for him after all…and that was the best answer he could have hoped for.

THE END


	9. Bonus Side Story 1

_**Thanks for all the reviews and favs! I decided to include some bonus side stories as a small token of my gratitude. Hope you enjoy them all and feel free to leave any suggestions for future stories!**_

* * *

Steve had grown to notice that Natasha really enjoyed the time that she and him would be creating art. Aside from sketching and drawing, the six year old took pleasure in working with different mediums such as clay and paint. However, whenever Natasha would be using the paint set Steve bought for her at the craft store, Tony quickly grabbed the bag of old newspapers from the recycling bin and plop them into Steve's lap.

"If I have learned anything with that kid is that if you give a child something that creates a mess…it will not end pretty."

"Tony, I think I can manage Natasha and her paint set." Steve said.

"No excuses! I really don't want to spend any more money cleaning up paint on the wall, floor or carpet."

Steve promised to use the newspapers and kept to his word. The little girl saw him spread the paper on and around the kitchen table before setting up her workspace.

"Steve, I won't make a mess. I promise." Natasha said as he finished covering the table.

"I know you won't."

Steve remembered the last time Natasha ruined one of the walls in the tower. He had taken a nap in the living room when he left the girl by herself with the paint kit in the kitchen. After a half hour or so past, Natasha woke Steve and dragged him over to the wall that she had painted on.

Nearly the entire space had been coated with various figures and doodles in the vibrant colors from the paint set. The scene appeared to be like the murals from Ancient Greece, but updated for the more modern times; she had drawn each of her adult team mates in their costumes fighting some sort of monster.

"Ta-Da!" the six year old said as she presented her work to the superhero. "What do you think Steve?"

"I think we're both in big trouble." Steve muttered in fear. He knew Tony was going to be pissed! Clint had just come from the kitchen with a bowl of chips and a soda can when he saw the mural Natasha had painted.

"Natasha! What in the world did you do to Tony's wall?!"

"Hi Clint! Steve showed me some paintings that the Greeks did in an art book and I wanted to try it out." She explained, beaming proudly over her art work.

"Tony's gonna freak when he see this." Clint mentioned to Steve.

"I know, Clint." Said Steve in a sharp tone, gritting his teeth.

An idea came to Clint. Setting down the bowl and can, he quickly grabbed his cellphone. He snapped a picture with the phone's camera and then showed it to Steve. "Photographic evidence before Iron Brat blows a gasket." The solider only grimaced.

"Natasha…you know better than to paint on the walls." He directed his frustration to the child.

Natasha gave him puppy-dog eyes and a pout. If the four men had one weakness when it came to disciplining their now juvenile team mate, it was when Natasha had her "I'm sowry" face.

"But I wanted to show you how well my art is now. I'm sorry." The youngster said in a sorrowful voice.

Steve couldn't stay mad at her; Natasha was just so darn cute when she apologized for her mischievous behavior. "Alright, alright. But you need to help me clean up before Mr. Tony returns."

"Can do, Steve!" Natasha replied and gave him a thumbs up.

"I gotta show this to Bruce! He's gonna get a kick outta this." Clint told the two before he sprinted to the lab.

Tony had returned to the tower from running a few errands when he saw both Steve and Natasha busy scrubbing clean the wall she had painted all over. He had a shocked expression on his face as he watched the two of them cleaning the recently white-washed wall with rags from the bucket that stood in between them.

"What in the hell is this?!"

"Oh…hi Tony." Steve nervously said when he turned to see his friend.

"Natasha…did you paint on the walls again?" Tony said trying to control his anger.

"Yes." She responded in the same uneasy tone Steve had, but much quieter.

Tony took a deep breath and exhaled. "If you'll excuse me, I need to voice my frustrations in the other room. Fair warning: I'll be using salty language."

For the next five minutes, Steve and Natasha could hear muffled cursing akin to Yosemite Sam. Luckily for the little girl, the colorful words that Tony was using where unintelligible due to the door being closed. Afterwards, Tony came back out.

"Just continue to clean this up the best you can." He told Steve. "I'm going to have to make another phone call to maintenance and have them send someone later this week to re-paint the wall…AGAIN." Tony said, heavily emphasizing the word "again."

Steve shuddered at the memory; lesson very well learned. When he finished placing the newspaper down, Steve set up the paint kit and the construction paper. Natasha took her seat at the table just as he came back with a cup or water for the paintbrush.

"OK Natasha, you're all set to go."

"Thank you Steve." She said and set to work on her latest creation.

As she was busy painting, Steve was reading the evening paper when an advertisement caught his eye. The art museum was holding an exhibit of the collected works of Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. The famed children's author and illustrator was one of Natasha's favorites, as she liked how the stories where in rhyme and the pictures that accompanied the books where striking. Steve, while not well versed in his work in children's literature, remembered the late artist's political cartoons from World War II. They were often printed in the newspapers the soldier read back in the day.

"Natasha, can you come here for a minute?"

The little girl complied and Steve boosted her onto his lap. He pointed to the ad.

"Look who is having a show at the art museum."

"Dr. Seuss!" Natasha exclaimed. "Can we go Steve? Can we?"

He smiled at the child. "I knew you would want to go. And since tomorrow's the last day for the show, I'll be more than happy to bring you."

"Really? That'll be awesome!"

Steve saw just how excited Natasha was. She jumped off his lap and quickly ran to find the rest of the men and tell them of her plans.

* * *

The following day Steve and Natasha arrived at the art museum. As he was paying for their tickets, Steve was eying the program that accompanied the art show.

"Just exactly how many pieces of Mr. Geisel's more…'adult' works are on display?" he asked the ticket lady.

The woman eyed Steve inquiringly. He pointed to the six year old next to him, who smiled and waved at the elderly woman. The ticket lady smiled back at Natasha, now understanding Steve's apprehensions.

"Quite a few, but they are in a separate section of the exhibit. We here at the museum understand parent's concerns over the more grown-up pieces of Mr. Geisel's art, hence why that section was created."

Steve thanked the woman. While he was curious to see what the collection was, he didn't want the youngster to see caricatures of the opposing and allied forces in rather uncompromising situations. Taking her hand, Steve led Natasha to the exhibit.

Natasha was enjoying the displays of one of her favorite authors. Her eyes where wide with interest as she viewed each piece. Some of the drawings where merely pencil or pen sketches in small frames nailed on the wall. Steve hoisted her up to get a better view.

"It's the Cat in the Hat! Oh, that's Yurtle the Turtle!" the little girl pointed out to Steve, showcasing her knowledge of the author's characters.

"You're a regular expert on all things Dr. Seuss." Steve told her. Natasha beamed with pride.

When they finished the main exhibit, Steve was walking past the entrance to the more mature artwork when Natasha asked him about it. "Can we go see those pictures?"

Steve hesitated. He had the rational father figure voice in his head telling him flat-out refuse the child's request. But then another voice was egging him on, telling him to just do it; Natasha would have run in there regardless of his actions. In the end, Steve knew what the right decision was.

"Natasha. Remember the art book I have? You know that sometimes it has inappropriate images, right? Those drawings in the room ahead of us are like that, they may contain some things you really shouldn't be seeing."

"I know. But that's OK; you'll be with me and will answer any questions I have."

Steve gave her a smile. Why was he so worried in the first place? Natasha was very smart for a six year old. It was defiantly a trait that she still had from when she was originally an adult.

"OK then, we'll go see them. But remember; let me know if you are uncomfortable in any way."

The collection of political cartoons and artwork was smaller than the main gallery, but it was still impressive. Steve even recalled a fair amount of them. Natasha, while more receptive in the previous gallery to the art, she was more quiet and reserved; studying each piece with intensity. When she did ask him about the various artworks displayed, Steve did his best to explain the meaning behind them. When they finished the tour, Steve once again asked the girl what she thought about the artwork.

"Well, they are not like the other drawings Dr. Seuss has done. They are…" she was struggling to find the right words.

"Heavy?" Steve suggested.

"Yeah, heavy. The drawings where heavy, though I don't know what it means."

"It means that the message has very important meaning to say to the viewer."

"Oh, OK. I know that a lot of those drawings where about the bad guys."

Steve nodded. "You're right, Natasha. Back during the war, I—er, they didn't like how the bullies where picking on people who were helpless." He had to catch himself and not mention to the now young Natasha that he had fought in WWII.

"You should never make fun of someone. Bullies are mean!" Natasha told Steve.

"I couldn't have said it better myself. Do you have any other questions about what we saw?"

"No. But I'm glad you were able to help me understand what I saw." Natasha smiled.

Steve grasped the child's hand again as they made their way through the rest of the art museum. It felt good that Steve was able to show Natasha a window into his past, because when you do, you always learn something new.


	10. Bonus Side Story 2

_**In the main story, Tony mentions about taking the young Natasha out to the countryside to view the stars, which serves as the basis for this side story. **_

* * *

Tony looked down at the six year old. They both had the same disenchanted look: arms crossed over their chest and eyes narrowing at one another.

"So kid, what's your plan to drive me insane this time?"

"I'm not telling you Mr. Tony." Natasha said.

"I've got my eye on you." He said, motioning the gesture. Natasha smirked and went to go grab her stuffed toy hawk Clint Jr.

Tony moaned quietly. Since Natasha was back to being a young child again, he dreaded his time with her (he'd rather being working on that damn teleporter than watch a child). Even as an adult, Natasha and Tony often acted like siblings: he was the older brother who picked on his younger sister. But now it was different. Tony was now more of a frustrated uncle while the kid version of Natasha was his bratty niece. Since Tony was in charge of taking care of the little girl this weekend, Pepper mentioned that a trip out to the countryside would do them all good.

"It'll give you a chance to relax away from the city and SHIELD and let Natasha experience nature up close." She told her boyfriend.

"You'll be coming along, right Pepper?" Tony asked, begging for some sort of moral support.

"Yes, but you'll be the one she has to answer to. I'll help out, but you are the one who calls the final shots."

Tony was glad Pepper was coming along. Being the dominant caretaker for Natasha was going to be a drag.

After they packed the car with their supplies and luggage, the trio began the long car drive to Tony's cabin. It was far from the city and provided a great escape whenever the billionaire needed to take a break from the stressful life he led. So far, the drive was fairly uneventful. Natasha was buckled safely in the backseat, watching the scenery fly by. With the toy hawk in her lap, she held him up to see the passing land. Natasha then began to sing softly and make the plush animal dance. Wondering what the some-what garbled lyrics to song where, Tony turned his attention to her from the passenger's side; Pepper was driving, but still listened in on the conversation.

"What are you singing?" he asked her.

"The Donut Song."

"The Donut Song?"

"Yup. Clint was playing a video game that had it in it. It's a pretty silly song."

Tony knew what game the song she mentioned came from and chuckled. "I bet Clint finds that song funny too."

"He sure does! We sing it all the time and Clint even repeats the funny orange guy's sayings."

_Oh boy._ The next time he and Clint go head to head in that game, Tony reminded himself to have the volume turned down low. The last thing he wanted was to have the child quoting something out of context and embarrassing Tony and everyone around him. After making a pit-stop to grab lunch and re-fill the gas tank, they arrived at the cabin. While unpacking, Pepper suggested to Tony that he should take Natasha on a tour of the grounds.

"You're not coming?" Tony was slightly disappointed. Aside from watching Natasha, he was hoping to spend some time with Pepper.

"Tony, unlike you, I'm not on a leave from work." She said and held up a flash drive. "Duty calls for the CEO of Stark Enterprises." Pepper noticed the hurt look on Tony's face. "We'll have some quality time after Natasha goes to bed." She said and gave him a playful wink.

"That's why I love you Pepper." Tony said and gave her an underlining grin.

Pepper then took out her laptop and booted it up. Leaving her to her work, Tony called Natasha over. "Say Nat, you wanna go check out the forest? I bet we can find some really interesting stuff out in the woods."

"OK Mr. Tony."

With her in tow, Tony led the little girl along a path located near the cabin. The path was well-worn and free of debris. Natasha skipped ahead, but remained within Tony's view.

"Where does this lead to?"

"It's a surprise."

"Aw, come on! Tell me Mr. Tony!"

"But if I tell you, it'll ruin the surprise."

Natasha pouted, but understood Tony's reasoning. The two continued along their walk with Natasha stopping now and then to look at something. Tony did his best to answer the barrage of questions Natasha kept asking him about the forest and all of its animals and plants, but it proved to be a lost cause. _Where was Cap and his Boy Scout manual when you need him?_ Tony thought to himself. Natasha had begun to pick wild daisies from the side of the road and ended up making a bouquet of them. She handed them to Tony.

"For you and Miss Pepper."

"Thanks sweet pea. I'm sure Pepper will love them." Tony then took the daisies and held onto them.

"Are we almost at the end of the road yet?"

"Almost, it's just up ahead."

Natasha grew excited and began to run far up the road. Tony had to quickly catch up to the youngster. Luckily for him, she waited for Tony.

"I win!" Natasha cheered in victory.

"Oh, so it was a race now?" Tony was huffing and puffing from being out of breath from the sudden sprint, despite he was a rather fit individual.

Natasha gave him a wide, sly grin that would have put Loki to shame. She turned around and saw where the path had led the two of them. It was a small pond that had a stream leading toward the lake the three had driven passed before arriving to the cabin. It was like something out of fantasy novel: the pond was in the middle of the lush greenery of the forest, its crystal clear waters running over the rocks on the earthy path it created. You could even hear the woodland creatures off in the distance. There was magic-like air all around the water hole.

"Surprise! When I was your age, I used to come here and play."

"Did you catch frogs and bugs and stuff?" Natasha asked Tony. He nodded yes and Natasha wrinkled her face in disgust.

"Yuck!"

"Really now? I always thought you enjoyed gross, messy stuff." Tony teased to her.

"No I don't!" Natasha said and placed her hands on her hips.

"Then why do you like to finger paint or cook up messy dishes in the kitchen at home?"

"That's different."

Tony scoffed. He then noticed a small salamander sunning itself on a rock in the pond. Placing the daisy bouquet on the ground, he quickly caught the lizard and cupped it in his hands. He then showed it to Natasha. "Wanna touch it?"

"No!" she cried. "Come on now, it's not gonna hurt you."

"No…it's slimy." Natasha said with a sour look on her face.

"Oh, alright…but I thought you were brave like that princess from the movie Clint showed you." Tony slowly turned away, still holding the salamander.

She wasn't going to let Tony get the best of her. Natasha scurried in front to him and looked at the little creature in his hands. At first hesitating, she then gently poked at the animal. Upon noticing it was non-threatening, Natasha relaxed her stiff stance.

"You see? It's harmless. Now, you wanna try to hold it?" "OK." She said.

Tony then gingerly passed the salamander to Natasha, who mimicked her hands like Tony's. Seeing the lizard squirm in her palms made the girl's eyes grow wide with wonder.

Suddenly, a loud croak was heard and Tony and Natasha saw a rather large, ugly bullfrog looking straight at them. The little girl shrieked at the sight of the frog, dropping the salamander onto Tony's pant leg. He fidgeted, trying to brush off the lizard off his leg. Natasha ran into him with such force, Tony was knocked right into the pond. Natasha fell right on top of him. Now with their clothes completely soaked, Tony looked at the child, who grew embarrassed over her reaction over the frog.

"Sorry Mr. Tony."

"Not a problem, little lady." He told her and picked her up. After walking out of the pond, Tony glared angrily at the bullfrog.

"Stupid frog. You're lucky I don't know how to make frog legs."

"Yeah! Stupid Frog!" Natasha then blew a raspberry at the amphibian, who only croaked back in response. Tony laughed at the exchange between human and animal.

Remembering the flowers, he picked them up and returned to the cabin with Natasha still in his arms. When Pepper saw how wet the two where she shook her head.

"We haven't even been here for a few hours and the both of you have gone and made a mess of yourselves."

Tony held up the daisy bouquet as a peace-offering. "Pretty flowers for a pretty lady. Courtesy of an adorable ragamuffin and a rather handsome genius, billionaire playboy philanthropist." He gave Pepper a boyish grin.

Natasha also gave Pepper a precious smile. The woman couldn't stay mad at them; she was won over by the two. She took the bouquet and gave them a smile or gratitude.

"Thank you." Pepper said and gave Tony a peck on the check. "Now, the both of you need to change out of those wet clothes before you catch a cold."

* * *

It was night time and Tony had set up a blanket outside in the front lawn. From what he read online, there was supposed to be a meteor shower tonight and he wanted the six year old to see it. Earlier in the day, Tony had come across his old telescope he bought a few years ago. It would give an excellent view of not only the meteors but to the stars as well. Seeing Tony set up the telescope caused the now juvenile Natasha to become giddy with joy.

"Can I see? Can I see?" she said, jumping up and down like a jack rabbit.

"Natasha, please put on your sweatshirt. It's chilly outside." Pepper said to the girl, trying to hand the child her hoodie.

Natasha snatched it and threw it on as she raced to Tony. "Yes, yes. Just let me adjust the lens." He told the hyper Natasha.

Pepper came outside with Tony's sweatshirt in her hand. She handed it to him once he finished adjusting the telescope. Pepper then took her seat on the blanket next to Natasha, who was looking up at the night sky.

"Wow. Look at all the stars, Miss Pepper." She said in awe. The blackened night sky was dotted with millions and millions of stars, many forming a thick line represent an arm of the Milky Way.

"What a beautiful night." Pepper commented, also gazing up.

"The telescope's ready. Take a look." Tony told Natasha. She peered through the eye piece of the instrument and gasped in amazement.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Tony asked. Natasha lifted her head and nodded happily. "Oh look, the meteor shower is starting." Pepper told the girl.

Sitting in the middle of Tony and Pepper, Natasha sat in wonder at the show on display, letting out quiet "oohs" and "aahs" as the stars rained across the open space. When the shower ended, Natasha was starting to fade due to being over-tired, but caught a glimpse of one more shooting star.

"Make a wish." Pepper told her. Natasha thought hard and made her wish. As per wishing star protocol, she didn't say what her wish. With a sleepy yawn from the little girl, it was time for Natasha to go to bed. Tony escorted her inside and made sure that she was ready to go to sleep.

"Mr. Tony. I know I'm not supposed to say what my wish is, but I wanna tell you what it was."

"Are you sure? It might not come true." He said.

"I'm sure, but I think it's something you should hear; it's very important."

"OK then Natasha. What's your wish?"

She was quiet for a moment and then spoke. "My wish was for you and Miss Pepper and everyone back home to stay with my forever."

Tony was moved by the youngster's wish. He bent over and gave Natasha a warm hug.

"Natasha…you didn't need a shooting star to make that kind of wish. Your wish has already been granted. All of us love you very much and we will never let you go."

"Mr. Tony." She said and hugged him right back.

Pepper watched from the doorway as her boyfriend and the former adult spy continued to hug one another. It hadn't been that long since Natasha had become a child once more, but what Tony had said to her was true: Pepper and the rest of their friends truly cared deeply for her and would do anything for her, no matter the outcome.


	11. Bonus Side Story 3

_**I really enjoyed writing about Bruce and Maria watching over Natasha in the main story. Plus, I wanted to write how the six year old would handle dealing with the Hulk and not just in a passing manner, hence the basis for this side story.**_

Bruce was leery over the flyer Natasha was showing him. The little girl pointed happily to the event on the bright pink slip of paper, waving it slightly due to her excitement.

"There's gonna be all kinds of stuff!" she said.

The event was a family fair that was being held in Central Park. All types of entertainment were scheduled, from storytelling, games and live music. What happened at the science museum only made the scientist even more cautious of going out in public. He nearly let the Other Guy emerge, but thanks to Natasha's actions, Bruce was able to suppress him. But that was in an enclosed space…this was in a much larger public area and with more people (not just school children).

"Natasha. Remember what I told you about how I have another person inside of me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, sometimes he doesn't like to listen, especially when it's not a very good situation."

"But I'll make sure you're OK. And I bet Miss Maria will make sure you're OK too."

Since the museum trip, Bruce and Maria Hill had become good friends. She would often accompany Bruce and Natasha whenever the two went out. While the numerous times before where not as stress-inducing as the museum, Bruce was unsure whether or not the SHIELD agent was willing to be put into another more sensitive situation.

"I'll see if Miss Maria would like to come with us." Bruce promised the girl. Later that night, he called Maria and told her about the fair Natasha wanted to attend. As expected, Maria voiced her concerns to Bruce.

"You know what'll happen if we decide to go."

"I know, but I believe I have a better handle on Mr. Green." Now that Natasha had met the Hulk, Bruce had taught the six year old to begin calling him "Mr. Green" instead of using the term "monster". By using this new moniker, it not only helped the child continue to get over her fear to Bruce's other self; it also helped the scientist to be on better terms with him too.

Maria sighed. "It's not that I don't believe you, Bruce. I know for a fact that ever since the elder Natasha dragged you out of Calcutta, you've gotten better on handling your triggers to summon him. My only concern, and I know you agree with me on this, is that if you do, uh…'Hulk out', it's not just the general public that's going to be in the cross fire of that thing's rampage."

She was right. If he harmed Natasha in any way…Bruce would never forgive himself.

"She's a rather bright little girl, you know."

"I know Bruce…that time at the science museum proves that. But does the Hulk know that?"

He wasn't sure himself. Bruce and Maria where silent for a moment.

"Look, if you want to take her to that fair, I'm not going to stop you. I'll come and be by your side." Maria stated.

"Thank you, Maria. You're a good friend." "So are you, Bruce."

Needless to say, Natasha was overjoyed when Bruce told her that they would be attending the fair. When the day finally came, Natasha was so thrilled that she didn't even eat all of her waffles at breakfast! Maria arrived at the tower to pick up Bruce and Natasha and soon the three arrived at the park to attend the festival. As expected, the attendance for the yearly gathering was massive. Bruce took a deep, calming breathe and looked at the youngster.

"You ready to go have some fun today?"

Natasha noticed the melancholy look on his face. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Don't' worry Bruce. I've got this." She reassured him.

Maria let a big, happy grin appear on her face. "I'd say you're in good hands." She told the scientist. Bruce appreciated the kindness from the woman and little girl. It only made his confidence over the impending day be more positive.

As the group spent their time at the fair, it was going better than expected. Bruce took pleasure in seeing the now juvenile spy socialize with children her own age as they made crafts, played games and did all sorts of fun activities. Even Maria got in on the festivities. During one of the many live performances, she and Natasha where dancing as the band played an upbeat version of the song "Iko Iko". The agent dragged Bruce into the crowd and urged him to dance. Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Bruce was hesitant to partake in the dancing going on all around him.

"Don't be shy! Bust a move!" Maria encouraged him.

"Yeah Bruce, dancing is fun!" Natasha cheered.

"What have I got to lose?" he said and started to dance.

Despite he felt like an awkward teenager at the high school dance, Maria was charmed by Bruce's dancing. "Well, well. It seems that the great Dr. Banner can cut a rug." She commented. Bruce blushed in embarrassment from being put on the spot.

Later on in the day, the trio was getting some to eat. Bruce had gone to one of the vendors a few feet away from the park bench he left Maria and Natasha at. As he was carefully making his way back to them with the food and drinks, Maria ran up to Bruce with a nervous look on her face.

"Maria, what's wrong?"

"I lost Natasha!"

"What?! How?!"

"My cellphone rang in my purse. I just turned away for not even a few seconds to answer it when I saw Natasha dash away from me. I tried to catch up to her, but I lost her in the crowd."

Bruce shoved the food in Maria's arms and asked which direction the six year old ran off in. Maria pointed ahead of them and Bruce immediately ran off.

"Bruce!"

"I'll find her! I'll call your phone when I locate her!" he called back to her as he ran away from her.

Maria cursed to herself. She knew that since Bruce's emotions where getting the better of him, the Hulk was more than likely to make his presence known. She ditched the food in a nearby trash can and made her way to catch up to the scientist.

As Bruce was running, his mind was in a frantic state. What if Natasha had been taken by some sick weirdo? What if the little girl fell and was hurt? What if she was playing some sort of prank? What if, what if?

Soon the crowd became a thick sea of bodies; Bruce halted himself in the middle of it. People all around him where bumping into him as he desperately called out Natasha's name and searching for any sign of the child. Suddenly, Bruce noticed that ever familiar green hue appear on his skin.

_No, No, No! Not now! Any other time but now!_

Maria had caught wind of him a few feet of her and noticed the worried look on his face. She gasped; it was happening! She weaved through the crowd, but was unable to reach Bruce. Meanwhile, Bruce had to think fast and get away from the mass of people. He darted to and fro between them and managed to come to a clearing. The green coloring was starting to grow deeper; it was only a matter of time before he showed up. Eying an empty sitting area far away from the public, Bruce headed to the spot. After parking himself on the bench under a large tree, he tried to center himself. But with every attempt he made to do so, Bruce knew the Other Guy was pushing the scientist farther and farther down.

"Bruce?" a voice said.

He looked up and Natasha was standing ahead of him. She was holding some sort of stuffed animal in her hands. He huffed, not being able to properly communicate. The Hulk was now becoming the most dominant personality. Natasha knew what was going on. She cautiously stepped toward Bruce. His eyes where squinting in anger, his mouth bearing a hate-filled smile. The little girl was scared, but she knew she had to try and calm him down.

"Bruce…it's Natasha." She said in a soft, quiet voice.

"Not Bruce." The man grunted.

"Mr. Green, its Tasha."

The Hulk recognized the name and relaxed slightly. "Tasha."

"Yes. Mr. Green, are you OK?"

While he had not reached his full strength, the Hulk was still occupying Bruce's normal body frame. His posture grew more hunched, large and thick like a Neanderthal. Natasha was now near the man.

"I know why you're here, Mr. Green. I made Bruce mad."

"Mad…very mad. Scared too."

"I ran away from Miss Maria. I saw a magician pull a rabbit out of his hat and got excited. He gave me the rabbit, see?" she said and held up the plush animal. The Hulk only grimaced at the toy, making Natasha wince slightly from being hurt by his response.

"I'm really, really sorry. I didn't want to make Bruce mad or scared." Natasha said, looking down.

Maria had finally located not only Bruce, but Natasha as well. When she entered the sitting area, she gasped. Bruce was just inches away from becoming a full-blown Hulk and the girl was right in the behemoth's destructive way!

"Natasha! Get away from him, NOW!" Maria sternly said to her.

Both Natasha and the Hulk looked over at Maria. As the beast sneered at the agent, Natasha stood her ground.

"No! I want to help Mr. Green."

"Natasha, for Pete's sake, listen to me! He's got a very short temper and he will hurt you."

"Miss Maria, leave Mr. Green alone!"

Natasha turned back to the Hulk. She dropped the stuffed animal on the ground and placed a hand on the man's cheek. "Mr. Green…please." She begged.

He looked straight at the girl's face. Natasha had such a sad expression that he couldn't help but not pay attention. "Tasha sad."

"I just want Mr. Green not to be mad at me anymore."

The Hulk let his large hand rest gingerly on her cheek. He didn't want Natasha to be sad, let alone hurt her. He knew that the little girl loved him dearly. She had once been afraid of him, but now that Natasha had gotten to know him, the Hulk saw that she did care about his well-being. As the Hulk's anger subsided, Bruce's body became less bulky and softer.

"Hulk love Tasha." He said, his voice becoming more like Bruce's.

Maria watched on in amazement. She would have never guessed that Natasha's love for both personalities was the key in Bruce's control over his triggers. Finally, after a few minutes, Bruce was completely normal. He stared at the girl, who still had the same somber expression from before. He quickly embraced the child in a tight, loving hug.

"Natasha! I was so worried about you!" Bruce said as he held her closer to him, relieved to see that she was fine.

"Bruce." She said, returning his affections.

Maria watched as the both of them continued to hug each other. She walked up to them and placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder. The scientist looked up at the woman and they exchanged silent smiles of comfort.

After a few apologetic words and more hugs, the trio went back to the festivities in better moods. Much later, the sun had begun to set and it was time for the fair to close. Bruce and Maria where walking back to the car with Natasha holding onto Bruce's hand. She noticed Maria's hand and grasped the woman's hands into hers. Maria looked down at the little girl, who smiled back at her.

"Thank you Miss Maria, for letting me take care of Mr. Green." She told the woman.

Bruce noticed Natasha's actions to the agent. The two adults looked at one another and smiled. Natasha was glad to see the two grown-ups happy again. As the cheerful threesome continued to make way to Maria's car hand in hand, an elderly couple sitting on a park bench nearby saw them.

"Excuse me miss, sir?" the old man addressed Bruce and Maria.

"Yes?"

"My wife and I couldn't help but notice the three of you at the park earlier today. We just want to tell you that the three of you look like a nice family." Bruce and Maria where taken aback by the compliment.

"Your daughter has the most wonderful set of curls." The old woman gushed. "Her hair reminds me of myself when I was younger."

"Thank you." Natasha politely replied.

"Uh, yes." Bruce cleared his throat. "Thank you." "Yes, thank you." Maria added.

"Have a good night now."

"You too. Bye!" Natasha waved to the elderly couple, who waved back at the little girl. When they got to the car, Bruce and Maria where still in shock by the comment the older husband and wife.

"That was…unexpected." Bruce said as he buckled himself in his seat.

"It sure was." Maria nodded. But her face softened and a small smile appeared on her face. "Maybe they were right. We certainly look like a family and we do act like one too."

"Hm. I would say so." Bruce agreed. "Although we're not the textbook definition of it."

"Does it matter in this day in age?"

Maria did have a pint. It wasn't just her and Bruce. Tony, Steve, Clint and Pepper. They were just several miss-matched and somewhat dysfunctional people who had come together to help out their now young team-mate. But they were the best group of friends to watch over and love Natasha.

As soon as they arrived back as the tower, Natasha blurted out how Bruce and Maria were mistaken for being her mommy and daddy at the fair. "I was polite, just as like how you guys taught me to be."

While Clint and Steve thought it was cute that Bruce and Maria had been mistook for being parents, Tony (the smart ass that he was) just had to throw a wisecrack at the scientist and agent.

"So, when's the wedding?" he said with snarky grin on his face.

"Shut up Tony." Both Bruce and Maria said to the billionaire, glaring at him with exasperation.

Even the most odd-ball families had their somewhat irritating member, which was very true in the case of the Avengers…and the group wouldn't have it any other way.


	12. Bonus Side Story 4

_**It was mentioned in the main story that Clint and Steve took Natasha out kite flying and I wanted to elaborate on it more, hence the reason for this side story.**_

* * *

It was a rather miserable, grey and rainy day outside. The rain was coming down so hard that it was giving the windows on the building a pummeling. Clint saw the now six year old Natasha staring outside, watching the rainstorm make its way across the cityscape.

"It's raining cats and dogs!" the little girl old Clint.

"Did Mr. Tony teach you that saying?"

Natasha nodded. "I'm bored." She said, changing her mood.

"Well, we can always play a game." The archer suggested.

"But I've already played all the board games we have. And Steve and Bruce told me no more video games for a while."

Clint remembered one night Tony and him where pulling one of their famous all-night video games binges. It was about three in the morning when Natasha had come into the living room and saw them playing a multi-person shooter game. The youngster's eyes lit up with curiosity and asked the two men if she could join them. Tony and Clint hesitated, but after adjusting the settings to be as kid-friendly as possible (green blood instead of red and the profanity filter on), they handed the child a controller. As Natasha was getting a hang of the mechanics, Steve and Bruce awoke and entered the room. They had heard her squeal with delight as the girl was busy shooting off zombies one by one.

"Tony! Clint! What on earth are you doing?!" Steve yelled in his best stern father voice.

The two troublemakers turned around and saw their friends glaring at them with disapproving looks.

"Oh, hey you guys." Clint smiled awkwardly.

"What have we told you about playing those kinds of games with Natasha?" Bruce grumbled.

"She came in all by herself." Tony stated.

"Boom! Headshot!" Natasha cheered after firing her gun at an oncoming zombie. "See Clint? I'm just like you when I play this game too."

Bruce could only face palm as Steve marched over to the TV. He hastily shut down the game system. Tony, Clint and Natasha groaned in disappointment.

"Natasha, go to your room. I need to speak to Clint and Mr. Tony alone." The solider stated, pointing in the direction of her bedroom.

Lowering her head, she sulked back to her bedroom, followed by Bruce to tuck her back into bed. After a firm lecture from Steve, Clint and Tony were barred from playing violent video games while Natasha was six until she was back to being an adult. As for the six year old, she was only allowed to play age-appropriate games; Tony had adjusted the game system's parental controls to prevent any more mishaps.

"OK, video games are out. What about a movie then? It's a perfect day for one, if I do say so myself." Clint said. "OK, but I get to pick it." Natasha told him.

Looking through the large cabinet of DVDs, Natasha carefully looked at the titles. Grabbing a case, she presented her choice to the archer.

"_Mary Poppins_? Good pick, I haven't seen this in ages."

Clint popped the disk in to the player and got a bowl of popcorn for the two of them to share. Settling on the couch, Clint and Natasha got comfortable and began to watch the musical. As they watched the movie, the archer and juvenile spy where so engrossed in the film and its songs that their singing caught Tony's attention. He was in the kitchen refilling his coffee cup when he saw the two of them singing along to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".

"Oh no, not again!" he wailed. Tony had to put up with Bruce singing _Beauty and the Beast_ for what seemed like eternity and he wasn't going to deal with having to hear Clint sing an equally catchy musical. Clint noticed Tony's fearful face and couldn't believe how fast the billionaire dashed out of the room!

"You're not gonna make me watch this movie over and over again?" he asked Natasha.

"No, but I do like the songs." She said.

Clint sighed in relief. For all he knew, the little girl's newest obsession (at this current moment) was anything dealing with horses and ponies, so Clint was safe…for now. When the movie was over, Natasha brought up the idea of going kite flying. She liked how Jane and Michael (the children in the film) took pleasure in the activity with their parents at the end of the film.

"It looks so much fun!" she said, growing excited over the idea.

"Tell you what, when the next sunny day comes, let's go to the park and fly a kite." Clint told her, to which the child beamed.

Later that day, Clint asked Steve if he knew how to build a kite. The archer explained to him that Natasha wanted to go kite flying and he figured that Steve was a pretty resourceful type of guy who would know how to build a kite.

"Just because I'm originally from the '40s doesn't make me an expert on how to make anything from scratch." Steve told Clint.

"Eh, it was worth a shot." Clint said, placing his arms behind his head. He wasn't adapt in anything dealing with arts and crafts as his friend.

"Can't you just look it up on the internet? Isn't that everyone's go-to to solve their problems in this day in age?"

"You're in Grandpa Mode again, Steve." Clint pointed out.

The soldier winced in embarrassment. "Anyway, try the toy store or one of those hobby shops." He suggested.

Per Steve's advice, Clint and Natasha went to the toy store the following day. At the store, the sales associate showed them the selection of pre-packaged kites that where in stock. Many of them had licensed characters on them, including the Avengers.

"I'll never get used to seeing my face plastered in things." Clint huffed as he eyed the kite. Luckily for him, Natasha was staring at the kites for girls. The little girl was looking at the various patterns. She grimaced and then turned to Clint.

"Clint, I don't like any of these kites. I wanna make my own."

_Thank god!_ He was relieved that in a world full of an over-saturated market of product placement, Natasha was interested in creating her own kite. Clint had to dig a bit, but he managed to find a few create your own kite kits. He purchased several sets, if either he or Natasha messed up putting them together. When they returned to the tower, Clint showed Steve the kits.

"Points goes to Grandpa Steve." He joked. Steve just gave him a cool smile.

Natasha was eager to start construction on her kite right away. As she pondered over how to decorate her kite, Clint was bust putting the frame together. He noticed Natasha dashed past him and go into her room. She came back out with her paint set. The six year old then went into the kitchen and grabbed some paper plates and the roll of paper towels.

"What are you doing, Nat?" Clint asked.

"You'll see." She said as she began to pour paint onto the plate. Natasha then placed her hands into the paint and rubbed them together. With her hands covered in paint, the girl pressed her palms onto the paper and lifted them up. Clint saw that she had made her hand prints in the shape of a butterfly.

"Nat, that's really clever of you!" Clint was impressed by her creativity.

"Thank you. I saw it in a magazine Miss Pepper was reading. I wanna get everyone's handprints too." Natasha said, looking at Clint.

It was a rather good idea. Clint convinced the rest of his team mates to join in. After picking out their colors, Natasha then had each of the men make their hand print butterflies on her kite. Clint, Tony, Bruce and Steve looked at the kite with big smiles on their faces.

"See? Now everyone has helped me with my kite!" the girl said. Natasha then added some glitter once the hand prints dried and her kite was complete. Clint attached the kite together and added the tail. He and Natasha stood back and gazed at the final product.

"Worthy of a perfect windy day." He said and the little girl nodded in agreement.

* * *

A few days later, Clint was watching the morning news as he and Natasha where having breakfast. The weather man reported that the day was going to be nice with a few gusts of wind…perfect kite flying weather! Once the kitchen was clean, the two were getting ready to go to the park when Steve walked into the room.

"So, what's on Cap's agenda today?" Clint asked him as the archer was helping Natasha tie her sneakers.

"Nothing, really."

"Wanna come to the park with me and Clint? We're gonna go fly a kite!" the little girl sang happily.

"Sure, it's a rather nice day out." Steve said and went to go grab his lightweight jacket.

At the park, Natasha ran ahead of the two men in search of the perfect place to fly her kite. She finally found a small, grassy hill and jumped up and down waving her little arms wildly.

"Here, here! This is the spot!" she called to Clint and Steve. They then helped the girl prepare to fly her kite.

"OK Nat. Be sure to hold onto the strong really tight and run for a bit until the wind catches the kite." Clint instructed. She nodded and began to run. The wind quickly caught the kite and it soon soared high above their heads.

"Clint, Steve! It's really flying!" Natasha gleefully cried. "Great job!" Steve praised.

For a while, the three took turns flying Natasha's kite. Clint and Steve even taught the six year old some tricks like how to do sharp turns and dives. Natasha giggled with delight when she would do the actions she had learned. Suddenly, an unexpected gust of wind came and knocked Natasha's hat off her head.

"My hat!" "I'll go get it." Steve said to Clint and began to chase after the girl's baseball cap. He managed to catch up to the hat as it landed near a woman's feet.

"Sorry about that, ma'am." Steve politely apologized as he bent down to pick up the hat.

"Not a prob-Steve? Steve Rodgers?" she said.

Steve looked up once he grabbed the hat and recognized who the woman was. "Beth? What a pleasant surprise!"

Beth was the waitress he had met and saved over several years ago when the Avengers first formed. Since that day, they had run into one another now and then. The soldier straightened himself upright and grew nervous.

"Funny running into you here. How've you been?" the waitress asked him.

"Uh, good. Yourself?"

"The same. Still working at the restaurant." As Beth and Steve where chit-chatting, Clint and Natasha came walking over to the pair.

"So that's why you were taking so long." Clint said and gave Steve a wink.

"It's not what you're thinking." Steve told the archer, slightly annoyed. "Steve, who is this lady?" the little girl asked, pointing to Beth.

"Natasha, this is Beth. Beth, this is Natasha, my-er…" Steve was a terrible liar and started to get flustered. Clint quickly came to the rescue.

"Actually, Natasha's my kid sister. She's visiting from out of town for the week." Clint explained to Beth.

"Hello Natasha, it's nice to meet you." Beth greeted her and the two shook hands.

"Nice to meet you too." Natasha replied. "Steve and Clint are taking me kite flying. See? This is my kite. I made it all by myself." She proudly showcased the kite. Beth smiled.

"That's a very cute kite." She then turned to Steve. "Well, I should get going. I don't want to keep you from your friends."

"Oh, OK. Nice seeing you." Steve said, secretly disappointed. He was hoping to at least get Beth's phone number; the hero thought the waitress was sweet and bubbly…and cute.

Clint and Natasha noticed Steve's demeanor and the archer gave a nod to the child, who knew what to do.

"Beth. Do you wanna try to fly my kite? I bet you can fly it better than Steve." Natasha asked.

Steve looked at Clint and gave him an irritated glare. Meanwhile, Beth saw how adorable Natasha was when she held up her kite to her.

"OK, you got it. I'll show you." Beth told the six year old.

Steve was surprised by Beth's response. The waitress gave the soldier a sly smile. "Are you really that bad at flying a kite? Because if you really are, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."

Steve could only let a nervous smile be his reply. Beth then flew the kite with ease. As the adult woman and the girl where kite flying, Steve gave Clint a dirty look.

"If you think this is going to help me land a date…" he started to say but Clint interrupted him. "Steve, take a chill pill. Beth will give you her number hook, line and sinker."

"Let's hope you're right." Steve said as Beth and Natasha returned.

"So, am I better kite flyer than you?" Beth asked Steve. "A million times better."

Beth laughed. "Looks like you were right on the nose, Natasha." She told the child. Beth then took out a pen and a piece of paper and wrote something on it. She then handed it to Steve. "Call me sometime and we'll get a coffee." She told him before saying good-bye to everyone and leaving.

"See, what'd I tell ya?" Clint elbowed Steve's arm.

"You're good." Steve said as the trio began their way back to the tower.

"Beth is really nice. I hope to see her again real soon, Steve." Natasha said, taking his hand as they crossed the street.

"I bet she would too." Steve mused.


End file.
